'We've Seen Real Cracks Emerge': Sec. of State Antony Blinken Addresses Russian Coup Attempt With Jonathan Karl

Obviously, the biggest story over the weekend was the apparent coup attempt by the Wagner Group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin. RedState, of course, has been covering the unfolding drama. Read more about it here:

As Streiff observed after news of the purported deal reached to forestall the coup:

The answer to how June 23-24 happened and what it means will plague historians, political scientists, and conspiracy mongers for years to come.

…

Because it was real, the one certainty is that Putin comes out of this weaker. A rank outsider nearly pulled off a successful coup d’etat. The whole episode played out on Russian-language social media and can’t be covered up. If this was disinformation, it was not aimed at the West; it was aimed at the Russian people. Nothing in this episode made Putin stronger domestically.

Newly returned from his trek to China, Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the rounds on the Sunday morning shows to discuss the developments in Russia. Speaking to Jonathan Karl on ABC News This Week, Blinken shared his take on the recent turn of events.

“16 months ago, Putin was on the doorstep of Kyiv in Ukraine looking to take the city in a matter of days,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken tells @JonKarl.

“Now, he’s had to defend Moscow, Russia’s capital, against a mercenary of his own making.” https://t.co/hlqgG5VJkb pic.twitter.com/KBuGbZ3e0o

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 25, 2023

16 months ago, Putin was on the doorstep of Kyiv in Ukraine, looking to take the city in a matter of days. Now, he’s had to defend Moscow, Russia’s capital, against a mercenary of his own making.

Blinken observed that the uprising was sure to have Russians questioning the ongoing war efforts in Ukraine, noting that the war “has been a devastating, strategic failure for Putin across virtually every front: economic, military, geopolitical standing, and fundamentally what it’s done — or not done — for the Russian people.”

Interestingly, Blinken maintained that the uprising came as no surprise:

Secretary of State Antony Blinken tells @JonKarl that aborted uprising against Russian President Vladimir Putin by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin didn’t come as a “surprise.”

“You could see this tension mounting, mounting, mounting." https://t.co/hlqgG5VJkb pic.twitter.com/XUNFDYDOV8

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 25, 2023

On one level, I don’t think that this was a surprise. I think that everyone’s seen the rising tensions, over many months from Prigozhin, who has very publicly criticized, questioned, raised issues in ways that I think were very striking. So, you could see this tension mounting, mounting, mounting.

While acknowledging that the uprising could make Russian war efforts against Ukraine more difficult, Blinken stressed that this type of instability is cause for concern, adding that with regard to the question of what comes next:

The short answer is: We don’t know. Which is why, again, speculating on what comes next is probably not the smartest thing to do. There are lots of unanswered questions, including the questions of what happens to Prigozhin’s forces, do they remain in Ukraine? I mean, we saw the extraordinary image of these forces coming out of Ukraine and going into Russia, just yesterday. So, we simply don’t know. But, again, that doesn’t change our focus, and our focus remains on Ukraine, and making sure that it can defend itself effectively against this ongoing Russian aggression.

When asked by Karl whether he had any sense of what Prigozhin was offered to call off the uprising, Blinken replied:

I don’t know, and I’m not sure we’ll fully know — or it may be something that unfolds in the coming days and weeks. We simply don’t have a clear picture of that. And this really is, fundamentally, an internal matter for the Russians. We’re seeing it unfold — again, we saw the rising tensions over several months that led to this, but exactly where this goes, we don’t know. But what we do know is that we’ve seen real cracks emerge — again, a direct challenge to Putin’s authority. Surfacing very publicly the notion that this war, this aggression by Russia, was being pursued under false pretenses.