Former Obama administration U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said Monday on MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports” that Russian President Vladimir Putin feared Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner mercenaries.
Reacting to Putin’s five-minute speech in Russian, McFaul said, “I think it’s very clear what he’s trying to do. Everybody thought it was going to be something dramatic because Peskov thought it was — He is trying to divide the Wagner mercenaries, the soldiers, from their leadership. He’s actually trying to do exactly what Prigozhin was trying to do with the Russian conventional forces, saying, ‘You’ve been lied to by them. They’ve dragged you into this war.’”
He continued, “That’s my interpretation of the speech. What I think is behind it, is that they must have signaled that they’re not lying down their forces, just as you were just reporting, right? Prigozhin said only a couple percent did that, and so I think Putin is afraid of them, and…
