U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., proclaimed that the rebellion orchestrated against the Russian military by mercenary troops formally under President Vladimir Putin’s control could be the “unraveling of the Putin regime.”
During a recent MSNBC interview, Connolly, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and president emeritus of the NATO parliamentary assembly, weighed in on what the Russian regime has deemed a rebellion led by Wagner Group Chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
He claimed that it may be the “biggest existential threat” Putin has “faced in his 23 years in rule.”
WAGNER GROUP: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RUSSIAN MERCENARY GROUP IN UKRAINE
Recent reports have claimed that the Wagner Group, a force of mercenaries that have been under control of the Russian military during its invasion of Ukraine, has allegedly turned against Russian military leaders and seized Russian military facilities in Rostov-on-Don, a city near the Ukrainian border.
Prigozhin, a long time Putin ally, claimed his paramilitary group was marching against the Russian military to fight “corruption, deceit and bureaucracy” therein. The mercenary leader accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike on the private military contractor’s field camps where the group is fighting on behalf of Russia in Ukraine.
The defense ministry has denied the claim, while President Putin has condemned Wagner Group’s actions, vowing to end what he deemed “a deadly threat to our statehood” in a recent televised address.
This afternoon, Prigozhin ordered his troops to turn around in a stunning update to an unpredictable day.
Intel from the U.K. Ministry of Defense alleged that Prigozhin’s force is “almost certainly aiming to get to Moscow,” though it added that so far there is “very limited evidence of fighting between Wagner and Russian security forces.”
Connolly told MSNBC weekend host Jonathan Capehart about the threat Prigozhin’s march is to Putin and his war efforts in Ukraine. Not mincing words, the lawmaker claimed, “This could very well be the unraveling of the Putin regime. This is certainly the biggest existential threat he’s faced in his 23 years in rule.”
Connolly then suggested Putin’s current predicament is his own fault, saying, “The Wagner Group was his own creation. He allowed it enormous latitude all over the world, allowed it to criticize the Russian military and to engage in independent activities, and was the only really successful part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
After mentioning the rebellion’s actions in taking Rostov-on-Don and appearing to begin the march to Moscow, Connolly discussed how such a rebellion is a threat to global stability as well, even if it means a blow to Putin’s regime.
“We have to remember, there are no good guys in this battle. Prigozhin is a thug. He’s a murderous thug. When people desert the Wagner group, when he captures them, he kills them with a sledgehammer to make an example out of them. He is a brutal, murderous thug.”
He added, “But he’s of course, taking on now an equally brutish, murderous, sociopathic thug in the form of Vladimir Putin. So there’s no good guy in this struggle and therefore, there’s unlikely to be any kind of outcome that the West is going to find favorable, or as that is likely to put Russia back on a more democratic course.”
The lawmaker claimed this incident could be profitable for Ukraine’s military effort in its war with Russia. He stated, “What it could do, however, is really unravel the stability of Russian military alignments over a 900-kilometer border with Ukraine. And so this could prove to be very favorable to the Ukrainian cause, but it could prove to be profoundly destabilizing internally in Russia.”
