MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. US intelligence agencies were counting on success for the attempted armed insurrection on June 24, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

"I have familiarized myself with how events in Russia are covered [in the West]. In particular, CNN, if I remember correctly, reported that the US intelligence services knew for several days that a mutiny was in the works, but decided not to disclose that information to anyone, apparently in the hope that the mutiny would succeed," the top Russian diplomat told the RT TV channel when asked to comment on publications in Western media claiming that the Russian authorities were losing control over the situation in the country during the mutiny.

"The same thought is prompted by another CNN report just yesterday, citing American intelligence analysts, who said that it was expected that Prigozhin's march on Moscow would meet with much greater resistance and be much bloodier than it actually was," Lavrov continued.

The top Russian diplomat noted that "representatives of the Ukrainian regime, including [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky and his associates, spoke quite frankly, in Freudian style, without any subtlety about such expectations, about expectations of the collapse of the Russian state." "All of them lamented their failure to take advantage of this situation to bring down the regime," he pointed out.

June 24 mutiny attempt

On the evening of June 23, several audio recordings were posted on the Telegram channel of Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. In particular, he claimed that his units had come under attack, blaming the Russian military. The Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a criminal probe into calls for armed mutiny. In turn, the Russian Defense Ministry slammed the Wagner boss’ allegations of a strike on the PMC’s "rear camps" as fake news. The PMC units that supported Prigozhin headed to Rostov-on-Don and then turned toward Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a televised address to the nation on Saturday, described the Wagner group’s actions as armed mutiny and a betrayal, vowing to take tough measures against the mutineers.

Later on Saturday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in coordination with Putin, held talks with Prigozhin, resulting in the PMC standing down, turning its units around, and retreating to their base camps. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a criminal case against the Wagner chief would be dropped, while Prigozhin himself would go to Belarus. In addition, the Russian authorities pledged not to prosecute those Wagner PMC fighters who took part in the mutiny in light of their "frontline achievements.".