Biden: Ultimate outcome of rebellion in Russia remains to be seen

President Biden on Monday said it’s too soon to conclude the consequences of the short-lived rebellion in Russia over the weekend, and he pushed back against Russian suggestions of Western involvement in the mutiny.

“The ultimate outcome of all this remains to be seen,” the president said in remarks in the East room of the White House, characterizing the events as an internal Russian struggle.

Biden said the U.S. is still assessing the fallout of the rebellion led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian private military company Wagner, against the Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday. Prigozhin retreated from an armed march to Moscow after the intervention of Belarus.

Prigozhin launched the rebellion late Friday with a video proclaiming the intent of the Russian war in Ukraine is a lie. He said his ire was set on Russian generals he has been feuding with for months, and he was triggered by what he said was a Russian attack on his fighters.

Putin responded to Prigozhin, without naming him, in a Saturday video address describing the rebellion as a “betrayal,” “treason” and stoked by “inflated ambitions and personal interests.”

As the chaos played out the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning against Western countries exploiting the “domestic Russian situation for their Russophobic goals.”

The extraordinary events ended — at least temporarily — on Sunday through negotiations with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, with Prigozhin retreating from leading a military column towards Moscow and pulling his forces from the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-don that they had earlier claimed as under their control.

The chaotic events triggered emergency meetings in Washington and among European allies. 

Biden said he was updated hourly and instructed his national security team to prepare for a range of scenarios. He convened a video call with allies “to make sure we’re all on the same page. It’s critical that we’re coordinated in our response and coordinated in what we were to anticipate.” 

“They agreed with me that we had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse, let me emphasize, we gave Putin no excuse to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO,” the president said.

“We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system,” he continued. 

Biden said he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and will have a follow-up call later Monday or Tuesday. He also said he will speak with another head of state he had yet to convene with, but he did not name that country. 

“We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events, and the implications for Russia and Ukraine. But it’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going. The ultimate outcome of all this remains to be seen,” the president said.