Russian government confirms meeting with Wagner Group chief and other commanders five days after mercenary uprising.
(DW) Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and other members of the mercenary organization five days after the June 23-24 riot, the Kremlin announced on Monday (10/07).
“The president took stock of the events of June 24,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, referring to the mutiny led by Prigozhin against the Russian military leadership and which threatened to take on the contours of civil war before the Wagner Group chief ordered his mercenaries to halt their march to Moscow.
Spokesman Peskov added that Putin also listened to the “reports of the [Wagner Group] commanders” and “offered them alternative employment options,” including in combat roles. The meeting took place on June 29 and lasted more than three hours, Peskov said.
The spokesman also said Putin invited 35 people to the meeting. French newspaper Liberation, the first to report on the meeting, said National Guard chief Victor Zolotov and the head of the Russian Federation’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergei Naryshkin, also attended the meeting.
“The commanders presented their version of what happened,” Peskov said. “They emphasized that they are loyal supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the supreme commander-in-chief. They also said they are ready to continue fighting for the Motherland.” According to the spokesman, Prigozhin told Putin that the Wagner Group continued to unconditionally support the government.
Last week, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who brokered the deal to end a Wagner Group mutiny in Russia, had already stated that Prigozhin had returned to the neighboring country after briefly staying on Belarusian territory. The mercenary chief’s whereabouts are currently unknown.
Riot
Prigozhin began his rebellion on June 23 in what was the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule in his more than two decades in power. About 24 hours later, the Kremlin said the crisis had been resolved thanks to Lukashenko’s mediation and that Prigozhin would leave for Belarus, a “client state” of the Kremlin.
During the mutiny, Prigozhin avoided launching verbal attacks against Putin, a longtime ally, preferring to focus his fury on the Russian military leadership, especially Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu – who still remain in their posts. Prigozhin accused the two of being responsible for Russia’s military setbacks in its war of aggression against Ukraine.
The Wagner Group fighters even briefly captured the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and marched toward Moscow. At the time, Putin publicly condemned the rebellion, saying it was “a stab in the back” and warned darkly that it could culminate in events similar to those that preceded the Russian civil war (1917-1923). A criminal investigation was opened against Prigozhin.
However, the rebellion came to an abrupt end supposedly with Lukashenko’s mediation, when the mercenaries were only a few hundred kilometers from Moscow. The charges against Prigozhin were dropped and he left for the neighboring country. Once very active on social media, Prigozhin has kept a low profile since then.
Despite apparently giving up on arresting Prigozhin, the Russian government has launched raids on the headquarters of the Wagner Group and other companies owned by the mercenary chief. In addition, the deputy commander of Russian operations in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, has disappeared from view since the rebellion, with independent Russian newspapers pointing out that he has been detained on suspicion of links to the rebellion.
jps/bl (DW, ots)