A CIA Chief, Williams Burns, warned of terrible revenge against the leader of the Wagner Group by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Burns had, in the wake of the Wagner group’s mutiny in July this year, said Putin was merely buying time to perfect his moves against Yevgeny Prighozin.
“What we are seeing is a very complicated dance,” the CIA chief had been quoted in BBC report in July.
Burns went further to say at the time that Putin was saying little of the mutiny, there was a grand plan to take the leader of the group out even if the group would continue to wield influence for Putin in Russia’s interests in some parts of Africa.
“Mr Putin is likely to be trying to buy time as he works out how best to deal with the leader of the Wagner group, Mr Burns added.
That mercenary group still has value for Russia’s leadership in places like Africa, Libya and Syria and so it was likely that Mr Putin would try and separate the group from its leader.
And the CIA chief said that Mr Putin may wait to exact revenge,” the BBC Reports had said
He was quoted further “”Putin is someone who generally thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold,” Mr Burns said. “In my experience, Putin is the ultimate apostle of payback so I would be surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retribution.”
This was just as BBC reported then that US President Joe Biden had said if all else failed Prigozhin could be poisoned.
“If I were he I’d be careful what I ate. I’d keep my eye on my menu,” the president has stated prompting Burns himself to say that “If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn’t fire my food taster.”
The BBC reported that “The mutiny was the most direct assault Mr Putin has seen in his 23 years in power, including by directly challenging the Kremlin’s justification for the war in Ukraine, with Mr Prigozhin saying it had been built on lies.