Putin is planning revenge on Wagner chief for his failed mutiny, CIA chief warns, as he warns Yevgeny Prigozhin: ‘Don’t fire your food taster’

Vladimir Putin is the ‘ultimate apostle of payback’ and is likely plotting his revenge on Yevgeny Prigozhin after the Wagner group’s failed mutiny, the director of the CIA has warned.

‘If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn’t fire my food taster,’ said William Burns.

The intelligence head said the private military group’s uprising exposed ‘significant weaknesses’ in the Kremlin’s power structure. It also saw Russia’s justification of the war in Ukraine brought into question, with Wagner boss Prigozhin claiming it was built on lies.

The brief mutiny was the most direct challenge to Putin in his 23 years in power, one which Burns said the tyrant would not take lightly.  

‘Putin is someone who generally thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold,’ Burns told the Aspen Security Forum last night, adding that he ‘would be surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retribution’. 

‘If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn’t fire my food taster,’ William Burns, director of the CIA, said 

Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin speaks inside the headquarters of the Russian southern army military command centre in the city of Rostov-on-Don on June 2

Putin seemingly cut a deal, brokered by his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, to allow Prigozhin and his men free passage to Belarus after they stood down in their coup attempt.

But it is by no means a case of forgive and forget, with Burns claiming Putin is simply buying time while he works out how to best deal with his treasonous former chef.

In June, the Russian leader described the Wagner Group’s march on Moscow as ‘a stab in the back of the troops and the people of Russia’.

‘What we are seeing is a very complicated dance,’ Burns said on Thursday, according to the BBC.  

Burns also claimed Russian elites are increasingly questioning Putin’s judgment, particularly following the Wagner group’s mutinous 24 hours in June, during which they looked like they could reach Moscow.

‘What it resurrected was some deeper questions … about Putin’s judgment, about his relative detachment from events and even about his indecisiveness,’ Burns said.

Vladimir Putin described the Wagner Group’s march on Moscow as ‘a stab in the back of the troops and the people of Russia’

His comments come after the head of MI6 delivered a stark message to Putin yesterday.

Sir Richard Moore said the only way the Kremlin leader could ensure his ‘career stability’ and save his own skin from the ‘chaos replaying itself into the Russian body politic’ was to withdraw his troops.

In a rare public address, he issued an extraordinary appeal to Russians to spy for the Secret Intelligence Service. He compared the fate of their country to Shakespeare’s doomed Hamlet.

‘Putin cannot live through an experience where one of his closest proteges turns upon primarily on his defence minister and his chief of general staff, you have a massive blow-up in the Kremlin that leads to troops, heavily armed troops, advancing within 125km (77 miles) of Moscow.

‘He has to realise, I’m sure, that something is deeply wrong in the state of Denmark, to quote Hamlet. It was pretty humiliating – he had to go and cut a deal to save his own skin.’