Putin has "absolutely" been weakened after Wagner coup attempt in Russia, Biden says
US President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, June 28, 2023. Biden will deliver what the White House is calling a major address in Chicago today to outline the theory and practice of Bidenomics. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
US President Joe Biden says that Russian President Vladimir Putin has "absolutely" become weaker after the attempted coup by the Wagner PMC.
The US leader said this during his interview with CNN, making it the second public comment on tensions in Russia.
Biden stated that it is "hard for him to tell" whether Putin's authority weakened after an attempted coup, "but he's clearly losing the war."
He's losing the war at home. He's become a bit of a pariah around the world. And it's not just NATO, it's not just the European Union, it's Japan, Biden told reporters on the White House South Lawn.
When asked again if Putin is weaker today than he was last week, Biden said: "I know he is."
Earlier, commenting publicly for the first time on the events in Russia that occurred last weekend, the US President stressed that the US and their closest allies were not involved in the rebellion by the Wagner group.
On June 23, the Wagner PMC leader Yevgenii Prigozhin claimed that the Russian army had attacked the rear positions of the group, killing "a huge number of soldiers." In response, he announced a "march" to Rostov-on-Don to "deal with the lawlessness in the army" and Russia's defense minister Sergei Shoigu.
On June 24, his mercenaries seized military facilities in Rostov, including the headquarters of the Southern Military District and an airfield, and took control of military facilities in the city of Voronezh. The Wagner PMC convoy was also in the Lipetsk region. The Russian authorities were already preparing for the siege of Moscow.
Eventually, on the evening of June 24, self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that Prigozhin had agreed to stop the movement of mercenaries in Russia in a conversation with him.
The Kremlin said that the criminal case against the Wagner's founder would be dropped, and he would "go to Belarus." The authorities pledged not to prosecute the Wagner mercenaries for attempting to commit mutiny.
Russia's leader Vladimir Putin once again called Ukraine the real enemy and offered the Wagner members to continue to "serve Russia" by enlisting in Russian forces, resign and go home, or deploy in Belarus.
