Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin originally planned to capture Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Geraismov, Western officials said, quoted The Wall Street Journalwrite CNN.

Prigozhin originally intended to capture the two leaders during a visit they were planning to the southern region bordering Ukraine.

The information reached the FSB, and Prigozhin had to change his plan

But according to Western officials, the Federal Security Service (FSB) learned of the plan two days before its execution, prompting Prigozhin to improvise an alternative plan.

Gen. Viktor Zolotov, commander of Russia’s National Guard, the domestic military force that reports directly to President Vladimir Putin, also said authorities knew Prigozhin’s intentions before he tried.

“Specific information leaked from the Prigozhin camp about preparations for the uprising, which will begin from June 22 to 25,” Zolotov told state media on Tuesday.

In fact, over the past two weeks, American intelligence services have gathered information that Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning to act against Russia’s military leadership.

Asked about the WSJ report, two European security sources told CNN that while it is likely that Prigozhin expressed a desire to capture Russian military leaders, there was no assessment of whether he had a solid plan to do so.

There were also assumptions about the role of Russian commanders.

It will be recalled that the New York Times wrote that General Serhiy Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon”, knew about the intentions of the leader of the mercenaries, and American officials tried to find out whether the general helped the founder of the paramilitary group to plan the uprising and whether other members of the Russian army supported the uprising or not.

Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov responded on Wednesday and said media reports that General Serhii Surovykin knew about Yevgeny Prigozhin’s armed uprising were pure speculation.

“Now there will be many different speculations, gossip and so on around these events. I think this is such an example,” Peskov said, TASS reports.

Surovikin, who was nicknamed “General Armageddon” by the Russian press, headed operations in Ukraine in October 2022.

But in January 2023, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Serhiy Shoigu appointed the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov in his place, and Surovikin remained his deputy.

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