Biden offers his first comments on Wagner Group insurrection in Russia

In his first public comment on last weekend’s events in Russia, US President Joe Biden has said that the US and its closest allies have not been involved in the Wagner Group insurrection.

Source: CNN, citing Joe Biden’s statement issued by the White House.

Details: Biden said that he asked his national security team to closely monitor the events in Russia on Saturday, 24 June, to report to him every hour, and to be prepared for different scenarios of how the events might develop.

He also said he talked to key US allies over the weekend to ensure they shared a common understanding of the events.

"They agreed with me that to make sure we gave Putin no excuse…to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO," Biden said of his conversations over the weekend with allies.

"We made clear we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This is part of a struggle within the Russian system," the US president stressed.

Biden also said it was "still too early to reach a definitive conclusion" about how the events will unfold in the aftermath of the Wagner Group mutiny.

Biden said that the US will continue to assess the fallout of this weekend’s events and their impact on both Russia and Ukraine, though it was too early to say where the events were going.

He stressed that it is key that the US continues to closely cooperate with its allies and partners and monitor the situation.

"The ultimate outcome of all this remains to be seen but no matter what comes next I will keep making sure that our allies and our partners are closely aligned in how we are reading and responding to the situation," Biden said, concluding that coordinating the allies’ actions was key.

Background: Late on Saturday, 24 June, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also discussed the rebellion in Russia.

The four leaders compared the information each of them had on the events in Russia and exchanged their assessments of the situation and expectations for how it might unfold.

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