U.S.-Based Russian Diplomats Whisked Home After Wagner Uprising: Report

A flight chartered by the Russian government was sent to Washington, D.C. to pick up “key diplomats” and take them back to Moscow on Tuesday, according to i, a British news outlet. The plane, part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special flight squadron, landed in D.C. just after 2 p.m. local time, having circumvented EU airspace by flying around the Norwegian coastline, public flight data shows. A U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed the flight had been greenlit by the American government, and that it was set to ferry home Russian diplomats “whose assignments have ended.” A former senior U.S. intelligence official told i they believe the plane may also have carried Russian representatives to the U.S., where they could schedule “high-level diplomatic meetings” in Washington if necessary. “The events of the past 48 hours,” the official said, referring to the Wagner Group’s aborted uprising, “have opened a crack in diplomacy.”