According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, insurgent mercenaries from the Wagner Group can either join the Russian army or “go to Belarus”. He warned in a public statement late on Monday that any attempt at blackmail in Russia was “doomed to fail”. Putin thanked Russians for their “patriotism” during the abortive Wagner uprising over the weekend.
“I thank all the soldiers, intelligence workers, who stood in the way of the insurgents,” Putin said in a speech broadcast on state television on Monday. Everything was done under his orders to avoid bloodshed. “It took time,” Putin said. “The armed insurrection would have been crushed that way.”
Putin ‘seriously damaged’
If mercenaries and regular troops had fired at each other, it would have benefited Kiev and the West in particular, Putin explained. There they already expected Russia to disintegrate. But Russian society was united in its opposition to the uprising. In the end, the revolutionaries would have recognized this and given up.
German military expert Nico Lange spoke Monday night on ORF’s ZiB 2 of a “gang war” in which the supposedly strong Russian state was “absent”. Lange doesn’t believe in a production. For security experts at the Munich Security Conference, Putin is “severely damaged”. In addition, the head of the Kremlin is the greatest security risk for the West, Lange said on the ORF program.
Russian casualties in the uprising
On Saturday night, mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin made serious accusations against Russia’s Ministry of Defense and accused Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering an attack on a military camp by Wagner’s troops fighting for Moscow. He then occupied the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and sent some units of his troops to Moscow. Its virtually unimpeded advance on Moscow, which only stopped a good 200 kilometers from the Russian capital because Prigozhin had given up, sent shock waves through the country.
In his speech, Putin tried to maintain the impression that the organs of power and security were incapable of acting. He praised the courage and self-sacrifice of Russian pilots who were killed while fighting insurgents. It was the first time that the Russian leadership acknowledged casualties during the uprising.
No resignation of defense secretary
The Kremlin chief also thanked Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko for mediating the conflict with Wagner’s boss Prigozhin. His former confidant Prigozhin is said to have found refuge in Belarus after he withdrew from the march on Moscow on Saturday. Other Wagner fighters could do the same. Putin emphasized that his amnesty offer was valid.
Before the speech, many political observers expected the resignation of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who had been criticized for months for the failure of the aggressive war against Ukraine and also had nothing to oppose Prigozhin’s uprising. But despite the criticism, Putin has – at least for now – sided with Shoigu, also because he is considered a personal confidant of the Kremlin chief.
According to a report by the Interfax news agency, government spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Putin would meet with the heads of the security services. Participants in the meeting include Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Attorney General Igor Krasnov, head of the Kremlin administration Anton Vaino, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, head of the FSB secret service Alexander Bortnikov, head of the National Guard Viktor Solotov, head of the Federal Protection Service Dmitry Kochnev and head of the Federal Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin. (apa/afp/dpa)