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Secretary Antony J. Blinken With Jonathan Karl of ABC This Week [ https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-with-jonathan-karl-of-abc-this-week/ ] 06/25/2023 11:08 AM EDT
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
Via Teleconference
*QUESTION: *Joining us now, Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here. You’ve been briefed this morning. What can you tell us about the very latest in the situation on the ground in Russia?
*SECRETARY BLINKEN: *Jon, look, it’s still a moving picture and I doubt we’ve seen the last act, and I also don’t want to speculate because it is something that continues to move. But I think we can say this much: First, we’ve seen some very serious cracks emerge. You have Prigozhin publicly questioning the very premise for this Russian aggression against Ukraine in the first place, the notion that somehow Ukraine or NATO presented a threat to Russia. You have someone challenging Putin’s leadership very publicly and very open – and very openly. And of course, if you put this in context, 16 months ago Putin was on the doorstep of Kyiv in Ukraine looking to take the city in a matter of days, erase the country from the map. Now, he’s had to defend Moscow, Russia’s capital, against a mercenary of his own making.
So I think this is clearly – we see cracks emerging. Where they go, if anywhere, when they get there, very hard to say. I don’t want to speculate on it, but I don’t think we’ve seen the final act.
*QUESTION: *So it sounds like you’re saying this is not over. I mean, it seems hard to believe that Putin, who is known for executing his critics, would allow Prigozhin to move away as a free man – amnesty. I mean, what are you – is the rebellion really over?
*SECRETARY BLINKEN: *So much that is beneath the surface has now surfaced again in terms of questioning the very premises for the war, in terms of questioning the conduct of the war, in terms of questioning what good this has actually done for Russia. And of course, it’s been exactly the opposite. This has been a devastating strategic failure for Putin across virtually every front – economic, military, geopolitical standing – and fundamentally, what it’s done or not done for the Russian people.
Having said that, Putin of course has put in place a state that’s designed around him with control of the media, control of the information space. So again, I don’t think it’s right for us to speculate on where this may go. We are intensely focused on Ukraine, which we’ve been all along, and that is making sure they have what they need to defend the country and to take back territory that’s been seized from them by Russia over the last 16 months. That’s where our focus is.
*QUESTION: *Have you spoken to your Russian counterpart? Have you spoken to Lavrov?
*SECRETARY BLINKEN: *I have not, but others in the administration have spoken to Russian counterparts, primarily because we want to make sure that Russia understands its obligation to look out for the well-being of American citizens and our personnel who are in Russia. They have obligations to do that. We wanted to make sure that those were front and center as this was all unfolding.
*QUESTION: *Has the President tried to reach out to Putin?
*SECRETARY BLINKEN: *He has not.
*QUESTION: *And what surprised you, what surprised the administration more – the rebellion itself or how quickly it seemed to end?
*SECRETARY BLINKEN: *Look, on one level I don’t think this was a surprise. I think everyone has seen the rising tensions over many months from Prigozhin, who has very publicly criticized, questioned, raised issues in ways that I think were very striking. And so you could see this – these – this tension mounting, mounting, mounting. And again, Jon, I don’t want to speculate about where this may go. There still may be other chapters. Our focus has to be and remains resolutely on Ukraine.
The President, yesterday, got immediately – not only brought his national security cabinet together, but brought together the leaders of our key allies and partners. There is absolute unity, both of purpose and in action, in terms of supporting Ukraine, making sure they have what they need to defend themselves. And that’s where our focus is; that’s where the President’s focus has been.
*QUESTION: *And is this – on balance, does it look like a positive development for the world, for Ukraine, because it shows chaos and weakness in Moscow, or are you concerned about the real dangers of instability in Russia?
*SECRETARY BLINKEN: *Well, it can be – it can be both at once. To the extent that the Russians are distracted and divided, it may make their prosecution of the aggression against Ukraine more difficult. On the other hand, of course when you have instability of any kind in a major country like Russia, a major power, that is cause for concern. So it’s something that we’re watching very, very carefully.
*QUESTION: *And Prigozhin’s forces were among the most brutally effective in Ukraine. What happens to them now? I mean, are they moving out with him? Are they being kind of taken in by the Russian military? What happens?
*SECRETARY BLINKEN: *The short answer is we don’t know, which is why, again, speculating on what comes next is probably not the smartest thing to do. There are lots of unanswered questions, including the questions of what happens to Prigozhin’s forces. Do they remain in Ukraine? I mean, we saw the extraordinary image of these forces coming out of Ukraine and going into Russia just yesterday.
*QUESTION: *Yeah.
*SECRETARY BLINKEN: *So we simply don’t know. But again, that doesn’t change our focus, and our focus remains on Ukraine in making sure that it can defend itself effectively against this ongoing Russian aggression. That’s where the focus is.
*QUESTION: *And will Ukraine be able to take advantage of that instability, of that uncertainty? I mean, this is —
*SECRETARY BLINKEN: *Well —
*QUESTION: *The offensive is – the counteroffensive is underway.
*SECRETARY BLINKEN: *The counteroffensive —
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