i know i m repeating myself. if this was a stress test for russia, do you think it weakens russia? when you are a leader like putin, this shows weakness to the world this. is not a false flag inflation. i believe they had a chance, the wagner group, as fast as they were moving, once they got across the river, which was the final checkpoint, they could have been inside moscow and the only thing defending moscow are national guard troops, really they are police and they could have gone to the ministry of defense or the kremlin. i think it s a classic case of a dog catching a car. and i used to have a dog that chased cars and he would always
then you and then change topics. one thing you mentioned is, sorry, you said the united states will continue sorry, the united states will continue to impose costs on wagner or its successor. is there any indication right now that wagner is actually standing up a successor organization? i think i said or successor if any. we have noted the announcements by the ministry of defense that wagner forces are supposed to be absorbed into the ministry of defense. we don t have any assessment of what will happen to the wagner group, either in ukraine or elsewhere and the world, but whether it s wagner or whether it s a successor or any other organization that conducts the activities that wagner has conducted to destabilize those
we are all concerned by potential for instability in russia given the stakes and what s going on in ukraine. and i m not going to talk about intelligence matters one way or the other here. the rift between mr. prigozhin and the wagner group and the russian ministry of defense was playing out in public for all of you to see. the tensions, the frustrations, the anger, the acquisitions, all played out publicly. that was no secret whatsoever. now, what that tension does inside russia, again, that s an internal russian matter. what we ve got to do is not get distracted by that and focus on supporting ukraine. i want to follow up on a different subject briefly. at the question and answer event with the president and prime minister modi, our colleague of
the development of the wagner movement towards moscow before it started. as i think i mentioned to kelly, the dispute and the tension between wagner and the russian ministry of defense was widely known. rolling towards moscow. all the tension was public. i m not going to talk about intelligence matters. thank you for doing. what should we call what transpired over the weekend? is it a mutiny, coun, counter rebellion? we are not slapping a bumper sticker on it. the u.s. assessment, was the objective to threaten the kremlin or putin? was it ever the wagner group s intent to directly target putin or the kremlin? i would let the parties peek for themselves in terms of what
counteroffensive is more slow than expected and do you feel that you analyze that concerning the wagner group will be busy doing something else, that it will help the counteroffensive? i don t know what the wagner group is going to be busy doing here. it s too soon to know how it s going to play out. whether in africa or elsewhere. it s certainly in ukraine and i am not i have said before and say it again today, i m not going to do armchair quarterbacking from this podium. that s up to president zelenskyy to speak to. our focus is what they need to receive. in terms of weapons and capabilities this week, we are focused on that, that s where our heads are. just to make sure, kir at this, i understand well. how much did the nsc knew about