Ex-Trump Defense Official Claims Wagner Rebellion Helps Russia in Ukraine: Putin ‘Picked Up Huge Propaganda Win’

Kash Patel, the former Trump-era defense department official turned children’s book writer, joined Fox Business Network on Monday and offered his assessment of the state of play in Russia.

Patel was asked by another former Trump official, Larry Kudlow, how the march on Moscow by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin impacts the conflict in Ukraine.

“Does this have any impact on Ukraine? I mean, the Russians, they’re not pulling out of Ukraine or they’re not going to give up more. Does it have any impact at all on Ukraine?” Kudlow asked.

“I think it has an absolutely enormous impact on Ukraine that tilts in the favor of Russia,” Patel immediately replied, taking a counter view from many observers who believe Russian President Vladimir Putin was weakened by the very public act of defiance.

“Because, as I said, even if Vladimir Putin doesn’t pick up all 25,000 mercenaries who, by the way, operate all over the world, including Africa, places where we the United States of America directly engaged them, even if he picks up half that number, he’s just picked up the equivalent of a special forces intelligence operational unit that he doesn’t have to train, that he’s given a hall pass to in terms of any criminal conduct,” Patel argued.

Notably, the Wagner forces were already effectively under Putin’s control, and as of Monday, most reports showed Wagner troops refusing to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“And now they’re going to go in there and back him and his adversary. And Prigozhin is sitting with a retired billionaire next door in Belarus in a brokered deal that took 12 hours. I have to remind the world that a coup, a resolution, and a retirement party in 12 hours,” Patel argued.

Earlier in the interview, Kudlow asked Patel to weigh in on if the rebelling impacted Putin’s grip on power. “My answer is no. And as I sit here in my hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, I’m going to tell the bookmakers to bet long on Vladimir Putin,” Patel declared, offering no criticism of the Russian leader who he argued just “picked up a huge propaganda win because everybody’s talking about Russia.”

Watch the clip above via Fox Business.