Li Yang
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russian mercenary group Wagner who staged a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in June, was killed when the plane he was on crashed northwest of Moscow on Wednesday, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency said. Washington delayed imposing new sanctions on Wagner immediately after the mutiny broke out hoping it would lead to more troubles for Moscow. It will not want to waste the opportunity to take advantage of Prigozhin’s death to reopen the wounds between Wagner and Moscow.
Although US President Joe Biden told reporters he did not know what had happened, he said, “I’m not surprised,” and pointed the finger of blame at the Russian leader, “There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind”.
By trying to drive the wedge between the Putin regime and the Wagner Group deeper, the US will hope to help its proxies in the Ukraine conflict, and intensify the volatility in Russia’s “internal affairs” through stoking Prigozhin’s death into a “backyard fire” of Moscow, if not a fuse of systemic crisis in Russia, while claiming a high moral ground to justify its move as an effort to end the Ukraine crisis early.
Those sharing a similar view of Washington, with a certain sense of schadenfreude over the incident, should realize that it is nothing but a miscalculation as that will serve no parties’ interests, including those of the US, if the situation is allowed to be orchestrated according to the US’ wishes. The Ukraine crisis can only be settled through peaceful means with a lasting security mechanism being founded in Europe rather than by the fall of either Russia or Ukraine.
As such, the world should be alert to Washington trying to manipulate the incident by inciting Wagner to respond, even before the facts are clear, as that will only further complicate the situation. All peace-loving nations that hope to see a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis should not meddle in the “internal affairs” of Russia. Any country trying to exploit the incident so as to steer the crisis in a particular direction is only displaying its strategic myopia.
The China Daily
