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Nap a cup of coffee – or glass of cognac, if you are so inclined.
Because here is a very, very interesting story. Beware – because it develops into a real spy novel, where you never know who is really who, or whom they pretend to work for.
Start with the headline story of CNN today Friday 30 June 2023 – a story smearing Russia’s general Surovikin for being accomplice to Wagner’s failed coup last Saturday 24 June 2023.
After the short-lived insurrection, questions swirl over top Russian commander and Prigozhin
By , , and , CNN
One is known as “General Armageddon,” the other as “Putin’s chef.” Both have a checkered past and a reputation for brutality. One launched the insurrection, the other reportedly knew about it in advance. And right now, both are nowhere to be found.
The commander of the Russian air force Sergey Surovikin and the Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin have not been seen in public in days as questions swirl about the role Surovikin may have played in Prigozhin’s short-lived mutiny.
Kremlin has remained silent on the topic, embarking instead on an aggressive campaign to reassert the authority of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The CNN story is interesting not for its content, but for its reference to a “Russian” source, the so-called “Moscow Times”. Go to “Moscow Times” to find the source of the CNN-story about general Surovikin, and you find this:
Who Was Prigozhin Counting On to Back His Failed Mutiny?
By Mikhail Komin, The Moscow Times
One of the most shocking aspects of the weekend’s mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner private military company is that the Russian Armed Forces appear to have done next to nothing to stop the Wagner troops as they moved first from field camps in Ukraine to the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, where they seized key military headquarters, and then on almost to Moscow.
In theory, those headquarters — as the main command center for Russia’s operations in Ukraine — should have been one of the most high-security sites in the country. Yet Prigozhin was able to breeze in with his gang of mercenaries in tow and effectively take two senior generals hostage: First Deputy Head of the General Staff Main Directorate Vladimir Alekseyev and Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov.
Even after a criminal case was initiated against Prigozhin on suspicion of inciting armed insurrection and Putin addressed the nation, calling Prigozhin’s actions a “stab in the back,” there was still no resistance. It seems that the maverick Wagner boss may not be mistaken in his belief that there are plenty of people within the Armed Forces and security services who secretly sympathize with his cause.
The ”Moscow Times” story was officially published yesterday, 29 June 2023. It is detailed and indeed interesting. Lots of names, backgrounds, and hypothesis. It may all be true – or not. Read carefully the “Moscow Times” story until the very, very end – and you see the small notation at the bottom: “This story was first published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace“. Click here to Carnegie, and yes, you find the same story published by Carnegie already last Tuesday, 27 June 2023.
But hey – something’s wrong here. Carnegie in Moscow was closed down as a foreign agent by Russian authorities already on 8 April 2022, more than a year ago. You then scroll down to the bottom of the Carnegie page with the “Russian story” about the “generals”, and you find Carnegie’s address at the bottom of the web-page. It says: “1179 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC”!!
So the CNN “Surovikin story” was concocted in Washington DC. After being cooked in Washington, the story was then sent to “Russia” or rather, to “Moscow Times”, which may in fact also be writing out of Washington (who knows). And from “Moscow Times” in “Russia”, the story was then sent “back” to the US to be published by CNN as being based on “Russian” sources (residing in Washington, actually).
Nice story.
This reveals a lot about how the US disinformation and PR machine works. The CNN could as well have referenced Carnegie in Washington DC as their “Russian” source – but that would immediately have revealed the US deep-state origins of the CNN story. Instead, the CNN hid the origin of their story and pretended it was based on sources in Moscow – which it is not. All this does not prevent some of that story from being true or partly true. As is well known, disinformation works best when lies are mixed with truths. All we can say is that the CIA and the US deep state work over-time to take down one of Russia’s most effective generals, general Surovikin. The New York Times first “broke” the story about Surovikin based on “US officials”, who could have been nothing else but CIA. In fact, the CIA probably briefed the leaders of Congress (the “inner Congress” or Gang of Eight) about the impending coup-attempt in Russia already last week on Wednesday 21 June 2023, three days before it happened. The New York Times then went on to claim that general Surovikin had “disappeared” or been “detained”. All in spite of the Kremlin spokeperson Peskov saying that this is all “rumors”. And now CNN with secret help from Carnegie “follows up” in attacking the loyalty, honesty, and integrity of general Surovikin.
It takes a lot of effort to destroy an enemy general. Normally, you either need to be lucky to bomb his Headquarters, or send out a highly trained special forces command for a hit operation. But sometimes, you get a rare chance to try and destroy an enemy general in a “peaceful” way. Or rather, you take the war into a “peaceful” domain of war… like the press.
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Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: Secret Press Agents, USA – by Karsten Riise
