Wagner uprising "was almost hiding in plain sight," US Sen. Mark Warner says
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand, Alex Marquardt, Kylie Atwood and Kevin Liptak
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on May 16. Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images/FILE
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's uprising did not come out of nowhere. US officials had been tracking his ongoing growing feud with Russia's Ministry of Defense for months and took note when threats were traded back and forth between them.
There were also signs that Wagner was stockpiling weapons and ammunition leading up to the rebellion, CNN has reported.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Gang of Eight, told CNN that Prigozhin's rebellion "was almost hiding in plain sight."
Still, it was surprising to US intelligence officials how little resistance Wagner faced.
"Putin of 10 years ago would have never allowed this to play out the way it did," Warner said, adding that Putin is "clearly weakened."
"The fact that you have a mercenary group, that I don't think had a full 25,000 troops the way Prigozhin claimed, but was able to literally march into Rostov, a city of a million people which was the command and control for the whole Ukrainian war and take it over with barely a shot fired — that is unprecedented, to say the least," Warner said.
Multiple sources told CNN that US and Western officials believe that Putin was simply caught off guard by Prigozhin's actions and did not have time to array his forces against the mercenaries before they managed to seize control of the military headquarters in Rostov. Putin also likely did not want to divert significant resources away from Ukraine, officials said.
Officials do believe, however, that had Prigozhin tried to seize Moscow or the Kremlin, he would have lost — decisively. That is likely why
Prigozhin agreed to strike a deal with Belarus and ultimately turned his troops around, the officials said.
Once Prigozhin launched his rebellion, senior US officials began scrambling to connect with allies and partners and reiterate a key message: The West should remain silent and not give Putin any opening to lay the blame on the US or NATO for the insurrection.
Privately, US officials were reinforcing to the Russian government that the US had nothing to do with the uprising — and urging them to maintain the safety and security of their nuclear arsenal, officials said.
US gathered detailed intelligence on Wagner chief's rebellion plans but kept it secret, sources say
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand, Alex Marquardt, Kylie Atwood and Kevin Liptak
US intelligence officials were able to gather an extremely detailed and accurate picture of Wagner chief
Yevgeny Prigozhin's plans leading up to his short-lived rebellion, including where and how Wagner was planning to advance, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
But the intelligence was so closely held that it was shared only with select allies, including senior British officials, and not at the broader NATO level, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
It was not clear exactly when Prigozhin would act, the sources said. But he appears to have decided to move forward with his plan following a June 10 declaration by Russia's Ministry of Defense that all private military companies, including Wagner, would be forced to sign contracts with Russia's military beginning in July and essentially be absorbed by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The intelligence was so secret that within the US, it was briefed only to the most senior administration officials as well as the Gang of Eight members of Congress who have access to the most sensitive intelligence matters.
The secrecy surrounding the intelligence was why some senior European officials and even senior officials across the US government were caught off guard by Prigozhin's attack on Friday, and the speed with which Wagner forces marched into Rostov-on-Don and up toward Moscow into Saturday morning, the sources said.
Some NATO officials expressed frustration that the intelligence was not shared. But doing so would have risked compromising extremely sensitive sources and methods, sources explained.
Ukrainian officials were not told about the intelligence in advance, either, officials said, due primarily to fears that conversations between US and Ukrainian officials might be intercepted by adversaries.
Biden spent the days after the rebellion fizzled out speaking with allies, including the leaders of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky.
During those conversations, he shared what information the US had about the rebellion, according to officials, in order to ensure the leaders had a better understanding of what was known to US intelligence.
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Putin amekuwa dhaifu Sana, alishawahi kusema hasamehi wasaliti ila Wagner wamepata msamaha tena watachagua pa kwenda..........ingekuwa ni Putin wa kabla ya hivi Vita hawa jamaa wangepata tabu Sana.
Hivi Vita vimeiyumbisha sana Urusi na Putin, mpaka viishe hii nchi itakumbwa na anguko lingine kama lile la mwaka 1991.
