US and allies not involved in Russia uprising, Biden says

Moscow investigating whether western spy agencies played a role in the aborted mutiny

'We had nothing to do this,' President Joe Biden said of the Wagner Group operation. EPA

President Joe Biden on Monday said a brief uprising by the paramilitary Wagner Group against the Kremlin was part of a struggle within the Russian system, and the US and its allies were not involved in it.

“We made clear we were not involved, we had nothing to do with this,” Mr Biden said in his first comments on the uprising by the mercenary group.

Mr Biden's message that the West was not involved was sent directly to the Russians through various diplomatic channels, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

He did not describe Russia's response.

At a White House event, Mr Biden addressed the power struggle that erupted at the weekend when the mutineers barrelled towards Moscow, only to stop before reaching the capital.

Mr Biden said he had directed his national security team to update him on the situation “hour by hour” and to prepare for a range of scenarios, which he did not detail.

Russian intelligence services were investigating whether western spy agencies played a role in the aborted mutiny, the Tass news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying on Monday.

“We could all spare Mr Lavrov the effort by just making it clear that there was no US involvement whatsoever, no western involvement,” Mr Kirby said.

Mr Biden said he and his team would continue assessing the fallout from the incident.

“It's still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going,” he added, stressing that his message to allies was “it's important that we stay completely co-ordinated”.

Mr Kirby said the US does not know the parameters of the deal reached between Mr Putin and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin that ended the uprising.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, meanwhile, described the situation in Russia as “dynamic”.

“It is certainly a new thing to see President [Vladimir] Putin’s leadership directly challenged,” Mr Miller said.

“It’s a new thing to see Prigozhin directly questioning the rationale for this war and calling out that the war has been conducted essentially based on a lie.”

Washington contacted Moscow during Saturday’s events to reiterate that it viewed the crisis as an internal Russian affair “in which the United States is not involved and will not be involved,” Mr Miller added.

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