WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) – According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the uprising of the Russian private army Wagner against its own government raises questions about the power of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. “I think you see cracks appearing that weren’t there before,” Blinken said on US television on Sunday. The uprising “clearly raises new questions that Putin must deal with” and shows “further cracks in the Russian facade”. “The fact that there is someone inside who is directly challenging Putin’s authority, directly challenging the premises upon which he launched this aggression against Ukraine, that in itself is very, very powerful.”
Asked who in the US government had been in touch with the Russian leadership, Blinken said his team had exchanges with Russian officials over the weekend. It was about the security of US citizens in Russia.