Don’t feel bad, even Condoleezza Rice thought it — could the stalled Wagner Group coup in Russia just have been Putin’s ploy?
The former secretary of state appeared on “America’s Newsroom” Monday, where Fox News host Dana Perino asked President Bush’s appointee if the stories coming out of Moscow could be nothing more than Vladimir Putin’s plan to surprise someone. Are.
Perino said, “Some suggested that maybe it was all a ploy, that maybe Putin had planned it all.” “What do you think about it?”
Obviously, Rice had already thought about this.
“Well, I think it probably does him too much credit,” she replied. “Once I thought, can this be staged? But you wouldn’t do anything that would make you look so weak, because dictators, in fact, are authoritarian, based on three principles: One, there must be fear in the population. Second, you have to look invincible. Third, there can be no alternative. Well, it blew them all up for Putin.
Reports coming out of Russia this weekend revealed that notorious privateer Yevgeny Prigozhin had led his Wagner Group mercenaries on a counterintelligence mission that stalled as Moscow bolstered its security. Prigozhin was apparently seeking the removal of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose position remained uncertain on Monday as Prigozhin moved to Belarus in a hurried deal with Putin.
Rice suggested that the apparent diversion of the private Wagner Group – and its subsequent face-off – has inflicted an even deeper wound on Putin and his war, especially when it comes to controlling the narrative within Russia.
He added, “It also shattered their myth that the Ukrainian special military operation could take place without any effect on Russia, without any effect on the Russian population, and that it was a just and necessary war.” “Probably the most damaging thing about it is that Prigozhin said what has been left unsaid by those who supported the war, that this was actually a war that should not have happened, where hundreds of thousands of Russians should not have died, Where a million people didn’t have to flee the country. To me this is the most damaging thing Prigozhin did.”
Watch the full segment in the video above.