Petraeus: Prigozhin ‘lost his nerve’ in calling off rebellion

Former CIA director and retired U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday that Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin “lost his nerve” when he called off the rebellion he launched against Russian military leaders.

“Prigozhin kept his life but lost his Wagner Group, and he should be very careful around open windows in his new surroundings in Belarus, where he’s going,” Petraeus said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Clearly, Prigozhin lost his nerve. He was … within roughly two hours’ drive of the outskirts of Moscow, where they were starting to prepare defensive positions. This rebellion, although it had some applause along the way, didn’t appear to be generating the kind of support that he had hoped it would. And again, he decided to take the deal. He gave up this effort.”

Prigozhin urged an an armed rebellion to oust Russia’s defense minister, and his fighters crossed from Ukraine into Russia, but Prigozhin ordered them to stop their advance on Moscow and is headed to Belarus after reportedly reaching a deal with the Kremlin.

“In the meantime, Putin fled Moscow, reportedly — didn’t stay around,” Petraeus said on CNN.

“I think the government has been shaken. Putin has been shaken personally. This makes him more vulnerable, arguably, than he has at any time in his two-decade rule of the Russian Federation. Who knows where this could go now,” the former CIA director said.