Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin saw Yevgeny Prigozhin as a threat to his power, potentially giving the Wagner Group leader a reason to go against him.
Prigozhin pulled his Wagner Group mercenaries out of the frontline in Ukraine in June and marched them towards Moscow, pledging to take down Russian military leadership. After negotiations, he instead went to Belarus.
“I think Putin was being told by his senior military leaders — General Gerasimov and Minister of Defense Shoigu — that Prigozhin was getting too big for his britches,” Pompeo said Sunday in an interview with radio talk show host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM’s “Cats Roundtable.”
“And I think they were beginning to push back on and constrain him,” he added. “He didn’t like that.”
While many of the details of why Prighozhin turned on Moscow and what the future holds for him and Putin are still unknown, Pompeo posited that the Wagner chief’s betrayal will cause a shake up in the Russian oligarchy.
“Putin will see that as something that is a bridge too far,” Pompeo said.
“Much like [Chinese President] Xi Jinping went after the leaders of commercial enterprise that had gotten out too far and he felt threatened his power, I’m confident Putin began to think Prigozhin was threatening his,” he added.
Pompeo argued that he doesn’t believe Putin will allow another person to get as powerful as Prigozhin was, as the head of a global private army with deep ties in the Russian military.
The former Trump administration official also said he is doubtful that Prigozhin can return to his previous place of influence as a close Putin ally.
“I wouldn’t insure his life,” he said. “He’s not likely to find grace with Vladimir Putin again. Whether that ends up with him drinking some bad tea or just permanently in exile, it’s hard to know.”