The secretary did say in some of his interview
that Putin's
influence, power, whatever has really been shaken
by this, by his speech, by the whole nexus of what has h
Can you speak to that? Yeah.
I will say, as I said a moment a
this certainly was a new moment
in. And if you think of the even
of the last few years, as the secretary said six months
the Russian Federation and Vladi envisioned that Russian forces
would be taken care of.
And instead, over the weekend, we saw Russian forces taking
a Russian Ministry of Defense of inside a Russian city.
We saw the entire pretext of thi being questioned openly,
something we have done, somethin our allies and partners have don
something that that you have not inside the borders of Russia.
In fact, you can be thrown in ja for taking that step as
an ordinary citizen inside of Ru
We saw Yevgeny Prigozhin directed questioning
not just the Ministry of Defense officials, as he's done for some
but really directly challenging President Putin's leadership.
Those are all significant steps and a significant change
from what we've seen certainly i 16 months, but over a number of
where that what that means going
We don't know that has Vladimir as you know him
and as this administration knows tolerated this kind of insubordi
whether in the immediate future or long term
would he tolerate this kind of challenge to his authority?
I would not ever want to specula on how Vladimir Putin might resp
to any event, certainly not an e inside Russia for not the kind o
one the diplomatic
efforts that were made over the
Did Russians respond to those me from U.S.
diplomats Ambassador Tracy and t
I won't speak to the Russian res
I'll just speak to the messages that we delivered to them.
I'm not asking you to characteri
I'm just asking you to say, yes, it was a conversation.
I mean, it wasn't a one way, one way conversations.
We deliver and the other side ha
It was a conversation. Yes. Okay
And then one thing that the secr over the weekend is that
to the extent that Russia is now distracted
by what's happening internally in its country,
that could create an additional for the Ukrainians.
How exactly is the United States
encouraging the Ukrainians to take advantage of this moment
So I would say that I would fram slightly differently.
We continue to supply the Ukrain with the equipment.
They need to conduct a counter
defense counter offensive and to defend themselves long te
We continue to have intelligence sharing channels with the Ukrain
We continue to have military military channe
We continue to have diplomatic c that are open with with Ukraine.
What the secretary was speaking the fact that you did see what f
forces withdraw from Ukraine and instead move on a Russian ci
How that shakes out, what happens in the coming
with respect to Wagner forces or other Russian military forces
I don't think we can say, but certainly we are in close co
with Ukraine and the Ukrainian m about the ongoing counter-offens
Let's go ahead. Yeah. Thank you.
Last time White House in the Sta Department has said that free go
in the day ahead on this video,
what changes do you see in the a
trade between you and North Kore
Any change I think it's too soon
It's too early to tell
how any of the existing Wagner
operations or Wagner arrangement
will change, if at all, moving f
The Chinese foreign minister and the Russian foreign minister
had a meeting yesterday Do you k about the contents of their meet
I do not know the contents of those meetings.
I will say or reiterate what Sec Blinken said when he was in Beij
and in a number of interviews af which when we were in Beijing.
This is last over a week ago now or a week ago.
It was the Sunday and Monday The issue of Ukraine
and the Russia's invasion of Ukr did come up in our meetings.
And Secretary Blinken was quite with with Chinese officials that
he met with that if
they wanted to play a constructi
helping find a just and lasting that recognize that Ukrainians.
Ukraine's territorial sovereignt territorial integrity and sovere
we would welcome them playing su
But I don't have any any readout of those meetings that took plac
I'll come to your next.
Yeah.
Just to follow up on that, do yo
is there anything you can sort o from Chinese statements about th
You know, and I guess, do you think that t
seeing this instability
and the cracks in the Russian re might give China
sort of pause in their support for the Russians that we were in
I wouldn't want to speculate on how they might read this situ
I would say that I would just re what Secretary Blinken said
directly in his meetings to them which is we would urge them
to continue to not support Russia with direct military assi
We've obviously made our concern about potential support public.
In the past, we have not seen them take that
They discuss that in their in their meetings
and whether it changes how they've approached this conflict
I don't know.
But if they did want to play a constructive role that recogni
the need to preserve Ukraine's territorial integrity
and sovereignty, it's a it's a r that we would welcome them playi
I could ask about the Belarusian the element of Belarus in this.
Has there been any direct contac
with the United States and Lukas or people in the Lukashenko regi
Not that I'm aware of.
Is there any message or is there any, any, any any im
There would be an unrelated
and obviously they're already qu with with Lukashenko.
But but is this how do you see t that Prigozhin supposedly is goi
I think before I comment on that I want to wait
and see what actually happens where production actually does e
before I make any kind of speculative comment about wha
speculative comment about what what may occur.
Do you think it's possible he won't wind up in Belarus?
We just don't have any assessmen at this time.
Can I follow up?
You mentioned earlier on Africa, the vector operations there,
that you don't you can't
you can't say yet what's going t
but is there a message the United States has to countri
Burkina Faso, allegedly, or some other countries that hav
that have partnered with the gov
But what this unrest shows
about governor's activities and what which direction they sh
I will say two things.
Number one, to reiterate the mes that we have given to these coun
publicly and privately in the pa which is that any time Wagner
enters a country, death and dest follows, we see Wagner exploit
local populations.
We see them extract local wealth
We see them commit human rights
So we have always encouraged
any country not to engage with t forces because of the deal.
Serious effects
it will have on their countries and most specifically on their p
And then second, with respect to I would say it just
what happened over the weekend, it would just reiterate
it would reinforce the concerns we stated about the instability
that Wagner brings with it when it enters any country
Just a couple of questions to follow up on what
you just said, to backtrack a li
What's the State Department's de on what happened?
Nearly happened or failed to happen over the wee
What do you mean? We just
we just said the events that hap we have a definition of historic
I think the events that happened were Yevgeny goes in and took
a group of his forces and marched on Ros
and then continued in Moscow and then stopped.
Was it a quiet time or is any ot
I will say no one in the United government has used that term.
I won't speak to what his eventual motivations we
what his intentions were.
I'll say it is only is Vladimir that raised the specter of 1917,
not someone from any one from the United States government.