Biden calls NATO allies about Russia mutiny by Wagner group

WASHINGTON — President Biden and the leaders of the largest NATO countries in Europe spoke Saturday about the stunning mercenary mutiny by the Wagner Group in Russia — and then took no questions from reporters as he departed for a weekend trip to Camp David with his scandal-plagued son Hunter.

In a series of shocking developments hours earlier, Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin effectively declared war on the Kremlin and appeared to capture the city of Rostov-on-Don near the Ukrainian border in southern Russia overnight while threatening to march on Moscow.

Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron of France, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and “discussed the situation in Russia” and “affirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine,” the White House said.

The US president delayed by more than an hour his planned Saturday-morning White House departure to the military-run presidential retreat in western Maryland and answered no questions from reporters as he boarded the Marine One helicopter at Joint Base Andrews with Hunter Biden, who on Tuesday agreed to plead guilty to federal tax and gun charges.

Prigozhin announced Friday that 25,000 of his men would leave the frontlines of the stalled 16-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine and seek to topple the leadership of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, with whom Prigozhin had a simmering power struggle.

Prigozhin accused Shoigu and other Kremlin military leaders of incompetence and wasting the lives of Russians fighting in Ukraine and vowed to more effectively wage war on the Western-backed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky’s government this month launched an offensive aimed at retaking Russian-controlled parts of southern and eastern Ukraine and some US officials bordered on glee at Russian in-fighting.

A senior US intelligence official told Messenger reporter James LaPorta that it was a “watch and see if they destroy themselves sort of situation.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in power for more than 23 years, called the Wagner group’s rebellion “treason” in an early-Saturday address to his nation — staking his own political power on the Prigozhin failing, despite his early successes.

Biden is expected to remain out of public view until he returns to Washington on Sunday.

Hunter Biden, with whom the president will spend the weekend, sought out business with at least two Russian oligarchs during his father’s vice presidency — Yelena Baturina, the former first lady of Moscow, and Vladimir Yevtushenkov, who formerly controlled Russian military contracting companies.

Unlike many other members of Russia’s business elite, Baturina and Yevtushenkov have yet to face Biden administration sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Prigozhin’s seasoned and ruthless mercenary group, which previously fought alongside Russia’s military during the Syrian Civil War, has been crucial to the Russian war effort in Ukraine — giving Kyiv’s allies cause for hope as Russia teeters on the cusp of large-scale civil war.

Prigozhin, known for his populist appeals to the Russian public, published on Saturday a video of himself chastising captured senior officers at the captured Russian Southern Military District in Rostov.

US leaders are intensely watching developments in Russia, which has the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, canceled a trip to Israel that was supposed to begin Sunday to stay focused on the developments in Russia, Axios reporter Barak Ravid reported on Twitter.

Biden is scheduled to attend an annual NATO conference in Lithuania, which borders Russia, on July 11-12, before visiting Finland to celebrate that Russian neighbor’s recent admission to the western military alliance.