Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin wouldn't have led his troops to head toward Moscow Saturday if he didn't have help, and now that he's made a deal that involves him going to Belarus while his troops head back to base, his life is in danger, retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier Gen. Blaine Holt said on Newsmax Sunday.
"I don't see Prigozhin surviving this," Holt, a former deputy U.S. military representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Newsmax contributor, said on "Wake Up America." "I think he'll get off the stage, the news story goes away, and if he does survive it well, then we're going to learn a bunch of different lessons and then who is in charge of the Russian military."
Prigozhin and his Wagner group mercenary troops held the world's attention while they headed toward Moscow Saturday, until his announcement that an agreement had been reached to turn them around, and Holt said that his actions wouldn't have happened unless "something is wrong in the Kremlin."
He added that the incident shows Russian President Vladimir Putin's weakness, and said that "Prigozhin would not have gone after Moscow if he did not have help."
"Is there something happening in the inner circle where Prigozhin was motivated and thought that he would pick up and have everything he needed, all those skids that we talked about yesterday greased, and then suddenly they went away?" Holt said.
Holt further said he doubts that Putin had anything to do with orchestrating Saturday's uprising.
"I doubt Putin would have orchestrated anything that would have made him himself look weak or frail or infirm on the world stage," said Holt.
Retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, also on Sunday's show, noted that he and Holt had predicted Saturday that Prigozhin's rebellion would be "very short-lived," even if it ended more quickly than had been expected.
"Prigozhin just didn't have the forces and support behind him," said Shaffer, adding that now, there are questions about how Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko benefits from his part in the deal with the Wagner leader.
"He's doing this for a reason," said Shaffer. "This does weaken Putin in the eyes of the world…how does China see this? How does India see this? How do the people who want to partner with or support Russia see this inherent weakness?"
Meanwhile, Saturday's events were likely able to unfold because Putin "has a soft spot for Prigozhin," said Shaffer.
"This is a lot like a big Mafia family…kind of like Tony Soprano and his crew in New Jersey," he added. "Prigozhin was one of Putin's oligarchs."
But Putin also made a "huge mistake" in allowing Prigozhin to speak out about with his complaints on how Russia was treating his Wagner troops, said Shaffer, while agreeing with Holt that Prigozhin's life is in danger.
"I think this is going to result in something along the lines of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 when he got a polonium tea," said Shaffer. "I would watch carefully what happens to Prigozhin now that he goes into exile."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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