Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cast doubt on the likelihood Russian President Vladimir Putin "staged" the attempted rebellion, arguing that would give him "too much credit." Rice joined "America's Newsroom" Monday to discuss her reaction to the Wagner group's retreat and how the chaos has "exploded" Putin's grip on power as questions linger about Putin's grip on power.
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CONDOLEEZZA RICE: I think it probably gives him too much credit. I at one point I thought, could this be staged? But you wouldn't stage something that makes you look so weak, because really, dictators, authoritarians, rest on three principles. One, is there has to be fear in the population. Secondly, you have to look invincible. Third, there can be no alternatives. Well, this has exploded all of those for Putin. It also has exploded his myth that the Ukrainian special military operation could take place without any effect on Russia, without any effect on the Russian population, and that it was a just and necessary war. Probably the most damaging thing about this is that Prigozhin said what has been unspoken by those who have supported the war, that this is actually a war that did not have to take place where hundreds of thousands of Russians did not have to die, where a million people didn't have to flee the country. That, to me, is the most damaging thing that Prigozhin has done.
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Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said the truce brokered between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Wagner Group is "evidence" of Putin's "weakness."
Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin agreed to a deal this weekend to go into exile in Belarus after he staged an apparent insurrection in which he directed an armed convoy toward Moscow. The Russian mercenary organization had been fighting for the Kremlin in the country's ongoing war in Ukraine, but he marched toward Moscow over the weekend to demand the removal of Russian commanders, who Prigozhin says have mishandled the war.
CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan questioned Sullivan on "Face the Nation" Sunday about how Belarus appears to be a power broker in the deal, considering the country is considered "a vassal state of Russia."
"Like why would Yevgeny Prigozhin move to Belarus? Why are they suddenly appearing to be power brokers?" Brennan asked.
"[Belarus President Aleksandr] Lukashenko is in power now as president because of Vladimir Putin," Sullivan said. "Vladimir Putin came to his rescue in August 2020. It was Lukashenko who was dependent on Putin. But now think about this. This is, as you know, Belarus is part of a union state with Russia, they are conjoined."
"How dependent now is Putin on Lukashenko … it's evidence of the weakness that this reveals what's happened in the last three or four days, the weakness of Vladimir Putin. It's not just an appearance of weakness, it's actual weakness," Sullivan said.
"A person that he has said is a traitor who has stabbed him and his nation in the back … he struck a deal with?" Sullivan continued. "A deal that he needed to strike to avoid bloodshed and chaos. What strong leader does that?"
Prigozhin founded the mercenary group in 2014 and had been considered a close confidant of Putin in recent years. Sullivan called the Wagner Group a "corrupt organization" during his CBS News appearance and cited Prigozhin's time in prison for robbery, fraud and related charges.
Fox News' Emma Colton contributed to this report.
