U.S. denies involvement in Wagner Group uprising

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov aired the possibility that U.S. intelligence knew about a rebellion by the mercenary Wagner Group days in advance and chose not to warn the Russian government. President Joe Biden said the United States and its allies had no involvement in the uprising over the weekend. “We had nothing to do with it,” he said Monday.

What does the Wagner Group have to say? Leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday that his forces were not aiming to overthrow the Russian government. He called the uprising a march against injustice. He added that Wagner Group forces did not kill a single soldier on the ground, and he stopped the advance because he didn’t want to shed Russian blood.

Dig deeper: Read William Inboden’s column in WORLD Opinions about the uprising.