MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes intel that the US gave orders to Ukraine not to use the situation around the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) for sabotage and provocations on Russian soil.
"There are grounds to believe the reports that, as soon as this started, or maybe even earlier, the Department of State urgently instructed all its missions abroad not to comment on this situation in such a way so that it could be connected to the US' actions. And simultaneously, according to our data that I am inclined to believe, orders were sent to Kiev so that the Ukrainians wouldn’t use this situation to set up acts of sabotage and other provocations on Russian soil in the near future," the top Russian diplomat told Channel One on Wednesday. He added that this information was very reliable and "looked like the truth."
According to Lavrov, Moscow hears the "persistently sounding claims" that the US has nothing to do with the mutiny in Russia. "In addition to what is being said publicly, we have information about how Washington is ensuring the reaction of its entire bureaucracy," the foreign minister explained.
Earlier, US White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the US considered the situation around the Wagner PMC as Russia’s domestic affair and did not intend to interfere.
On the evening of June 23, several audio recordings were posted on the Telegram channel of Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. In particular, he claimed that his units had come under attack, blaming the Russian military. 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 toward Moscow. The Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a criminal case on calls for armed mutiny. 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.
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 the Russian authorities pledged not to prosecute those Wagner PMC fighters who took part in the mutiny in light of their "frontline achievements." The criminal case on armed mutiny was dropped, the FSB said.