The Telegraph has more about the intelligence the US had and shared with the UK about the coup plot. Separately, the WSJ reported that Putin is threatening to investigate Prigozhin for corruption (no, really).
British spies had ‘extremely detailed picture’ of Wagner’s mutiny plans - US shared intelligence about where and how the mercenaries planned to move
27 June 2023 • 11:40am
British officials had “an extremely detailed and accurate picture” of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny plans before his troops began to advance, according to reports.
The details were shared by US intelligence officials ahead of the short-lived insurrection, and contained information of where and how Wagner Group mercenaries planned to move.
Britain was one of the few allied countries to be handed the details, as Washington avoided circulating its reports to a wider group of Nato allies.
The intelligence, according to CNN, was kept so secret within the US that it was only briefed to the most senior officials and the so-called “Group of Eight” members of Congress, who have access to highly sensitive intelligence details.
“It was an extremely tight hold,” a source said.
The secrecy of the information was blamed for US and European officials being caught off guard when Prigozhin seized control of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia before marching toward Moscow, other sources said.
Some Nato officials have expressed frustration that the intelligence was not shared in advance of the attempted mutiny, which eventually fizzled out after an agreement to end it.
Ukraine was also kept in the dark amid fears the information could be leaked to adversaries listening into calls between Washington and Kyiv.
Separately, Kyiv was urged not to launch strikes within Russia during the rebellion amid fears it could trigger an escalation in the conflict by Moscow, a Western official told CNN.
“The message was don’t rock the boat here,” the official said.
“Ukrainians were being cautioned by allies not to provoke the situation. Make hay of opportunities on Ukrainian territory but don’t get drawn into internal matters or strike at offensive military assets inside of Russia.”
After the attempted mutiny was launched, Joe Biden, the US president, was keen to stress that the US or other Nato allies had played no role in trying to oust Vladimir Putin’s most senior military officials.
Washington had been tracking Prigozhin’s mounting feud with the Russian defence ministry for many months.
Intelligence officials picked up information that his Wagner mercenaries were stockpiling weapons and ammunition leading up to the rebellion.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner, a member of the Gang of Eight, said the mutiny “was almost hiding in plain sight”.
“Putin of 10 years ago would have never allowed this to play out the way it did,” he told CNN, adding that the Russian president is “clearly weakened” by the incident.
“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,” Mr Warner said.