WASHINGTON, June 25. /TASS/. The US intelligence services learned about the plans of Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and a possible mutiny in mid-June and immediately informed the White House and other US government agencies, the Washington Post reported on Sunday citing US officials.
According to them, after receiving information about the impending mutiny, the US intelligence community promptly informed the White House as well as other government agencies, including the Pentagon, the State Department and Congress, so that US authorities would not be caught off guard by the anticipated events in Russia. "There were enough signals to be able to tell the leadership <…> that something was up," one of the sources said, "So I think they [the US authorities] were ready for it." According to the newspaper, the exact plan of action that Prigozhin intended to take, as well as its exact timing, remained unclear.
Earlier, CNN reported that US intelligence warned lawmakers about the buildup of Wagner PMC forces near the Russian border, allegedly indicating that Prigozhin had been preparing to challenge the country's military leadership for some time.
On the evening of June 23, several audio recordings were posted on Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Telegram channel. He particularly claimed that his units had come under attack, which he blamed on the country’s military authorities. The Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a criminal probe into calls for armed mutiny. The Russian Defense Ministry slammed the allegations of a strike on the PMC Wagners "rear camps" as fake news.
Putin, in a televised address to the nation on Saturday, described the Wagner group’s actions as armed mutiny and betrayal, vowing to take tough measures against the mutineers.
Later on Saturday, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, in coordination with Putin, held talks with Prigozhin working out a de-escalation plan. Later, Prigozhin said that PMC Wagner was halting the movement of its convoys which appeared to be headed toward Moscow, turning them back and returning to field camps. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a criminal case against the Wagner chief would be dropped, while Prigozhin himself would go to Belarus. Besides, the Russian authorities pledged not to prosecute those at PMC Wagner who took part in the mutiny because of their "frontline merits.".