WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Monday said a brief uprising by Russian mercenaries against the Kremlin was part of a struggle within the Russian system and that the United States and its allies were not involved in it.
"We made clear we were not involved, we had nothing to do with this," Biden said in his first comments on the uprising by Wagner mercenaries that fizzled over the weekend.
The Biden administration would not address a widely held perception in Washington that the uprising showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been weakened by his 16-month war against Ukraine.
The White House said Biden also consulted on Monday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni about the situation.
Kirby said the United States does not know the parameters of the deal reached between Putin and Prigozhin that ended the uprising.
Persons:
Joe Biden, Biden, Wagner, John Kirby, Sergei Lavrov, Yevgeny Prigozhin's, Vladimir Putin, Matt Miller, Putin's, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Giorgia Meloni, It's, Kirby, We're, Jeff Mason, Steve Holland, Simon Lewis, Jonathan Landay, Phil Stewart, Kanishka Singh, Trevor Hunnicutt, Humeyra Pamuk, Mark Porter, Alistair Bell, Alex Richardson, Deepa Babington, Sandra Maler
Organizations:
Kremlin, Ukraine, White House, TASS, U.S ., Ukraine . State, NATO, Italian, Putin, Reuters, Thomson
Locations:
Russian, United States, Russia, Moscow, U.S, Washington, Ukraine, United