U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is claiming that he was not briefed about a recent international conflict that took place in Russia.
Over the weekend, Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin of the Wagner Group, a private network of mercenaries, turned his military entity against Russian forces amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
The militia leader began taking control of Russian military bases and led a march, which appeared to be threatening an armed rebellion against Russia’s military authorities. He blamed a lack of leadership from Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu for the increasing losses of his soldiers in battles.
Prigozhin eventually backed down and called off the march after mediated negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Wicker, R-Miss., revealed on Monday’s episode of The Gallo Show that neither he nor his committee colleagues had been briefed about the affair or notified about a possible coup attempt in Russia.
“We’re being told that intelligence officials in Washington knew this was about to happen Wednesday of last week, and I don’t believe any member of the Armed Services Committee was briefed about that,” Wicker said. “As the leading Republican of the committee, I did not get a briefing or even a hint about it. As a part of a coequal branch of government, I have a problem with that.”
According to the senator, the committee had been in a meeting over legislation while the Russian conflict was beginning to unravel. He took issue with intelligence officials and leaders in the Biden administration keeping the legislators in the dark on an issue that could potentially fall under the committee’s scope of influence.
“We were meeting during that entire time. We were together most of Wednesday and most of Thursday until late getting a bill done, and to my knowledge, not one member of the committee was briefed about that, although we’re being told on the news, I don’t know how accurate it is, that intelligence officials knew about this and did not brief us,” Wicker added. “I have a real problem with that and we’ll be visiting about that as soon as we get back to Washington.”
As for Wicker’s take on the conflict in Russia, the senator believes Prigozhin was looking to use his status and power to convince other Russian leaders to turn on Putin, but his plan backfired.
Though Prigozhin’s whereabouts are currently unknown, Wicker speculates that the warlord is currently in Belarus, where he and his troops have reportedly been given amnesty and are free of any punishments from the Kremlin.
“I think the Wagner, Prigozhin, leader is just as bad or worse than Putin. I think he was trying to get rid of Putin and he realized not enough of the hierarchy was came to his side,” Wicker said of the conflict. “I think he legitimately has fled to Belarus. If I were him, I wouldn’t stand on any balconies or eat any untested food for a while. I don’t think it’s over between them.”
Watch the full interview with Wicker below.
