
CIA chief says he believes Prigozhin is currently in Belarus
21/07/2023 06:51:55 World
CIA Director Bill Burns said Thursday he believes Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin is currently in Minsk, Belarus, as he appeared to be seen in a recent video.
“He’s moved around a bit,” said Burns at the Aspen Security Forum. “I think he’s been in Minsk lately. I’m not sure he has any plans to retire in the suburbs of Minsk, but he spent time in Russia as well.”Burns called Russian President Vladimir Putin “the ultimate apostle of payback” and said that he’d be “surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retribution.”
“If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn’t fire my food taster,” Burns said.CNN reported earlier this week on a video that appeared to show Prigozhin greeting his fighters in Belarus, in what would be his first public appearance since he led an armed rebellion in Russia last month.
Burns also provided an update on a call put out on Telegram in May by the CIA that urged Russians disaffected by the war in Ukraine and life in Russia to share their secrets. He said the Telegram video got 2.5 million views in the first week.
“The truth is, there’s a lot of disaffection in Russia, in the elite and outside it in Russia right now, and we’re not wasting the opportunity as an intelligence service to try to take advantage of it,” said Burns, calling it a “once in a generation” opportunity for intelligence gathering.