Defiant Prigozhin says Wagner mercenaries to operate from Belarus
Whatever his intentions, however, Prigozhin’s brazen revolt confronted Putin with the fiercest challenge he has faced in more than 23 years as Russia’s supreme leader, and it laid bare bitter divisions over the handling of the war in Ukraine that could have serious repercussions on the battlefield.
Ukrainians remain staunchly unified in the defense of their sovereign territory, and the Ukrainian military on Monday claimed further progress in its counteroffensive to drive out occupying Russian forces, by taking control of Rivnopil, the ninth village it has recaptured this month.
Speaking in an 11-minute audio address posted on Telegram on Monday, Prigozhin said Wagner fighters were strongly opposed to signing a contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry — as they had been ordered to do by July 1 — because it would have effectively dismantled the group. Wagner had decided to hand back its equipment to the Defense Ministry when the missile strike occurred, he claimed.
Prigozhin expressed regret about Russian aircrews killed by Wagner during Saturday’s rebellion, “but these assets were dropping bombs and delivering missile strikes,” he said.
He boasted that Wagner was perhaps the “most experienced and combat-ready unit in Russia, and possibly in the world” and had performed a huge number of tasks in the interests of the Russian state, in Africa, the Middle East “and around the world.”
“Recently, this unit has achieved good results in Ukraine,” he said, adding that Wagner had received an outpouring of support from Russians in Saturday’s revolt, which he called a “march for justice.”
While Prigozhin issued his defiant statement, Russia’s embattled leadership tried to demonstrate control on Monday after the bruising, chaotic mutiny by airing a video of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visiting a command post. The Kremlin released video of a recorded address by President Vladimir Putin to young engineers.
It was not clear when the video address by Putin was recorded, leaving questions about his whereabouts still swirling as Russians grappled with the aftermath of the crisis. Other key figures in the crisis remained out of sight.
Shoigu’s exact whereabouts and the timing of the video released by the Defense Ministry also were not clear. Russian media reported that it was prerecorded, probably on Friday, before the Wagner rebellion.
By contrast, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited his troops near the front lines in eastern Ukraine on Monday and his office quickly released video of the him greeting soldiers.
As a state of emergency in the Russian capital was lifted, Russians were left trying to make sense of Putin’s reversal from his threat of tough action against what he called “treason,” and what it could mean in the near term, especially for the ongoing war in Ukraine, and in the longer term for stability in the country and for Putin’s political future.
State-owned media, meanwhile, reported Monday that the insurrection charges against Prigozhin had not yet been rescinded. The Kremlin on Saturday had announced that the charges would be dropped as part of the deal in which Prigozhin agreed to halt his military advance on Moscow and leave Russia for Belarus.
Key questions about the deal remained unanswered, and messaging from Russian officials about Wagner’s future appeared confused, amid signs that the militia would be allowed to continue to function, despite calls for it to be curbed.
Until his Telegram post, Prigozhin had not been heard from since leaving the southern city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday to cheers and shouts of support.
Russian news outlet Verstka reported that a Wagner base for 8,000 soldiers was being constructed in Belarus, in the Mogilev region southeast of Minsk. The report could not be confirmed.
Putin was seen during his emergency address to the nation on Saturday amid the crisis, but there was speculation that he might have left Moscow for one of his residences northwest of the capital, after two planes from Russia’s special fleet used by Putin departed the city that day.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the president was “working in the Kremlin” and that the two planes returned to Moscow on Sunday evening, Russian news outlet Agentstvo reported.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin called for moves to strengthen Russian unity in the wake of the crisis, but he insisted that the Russian government worked “smoothly and clearly” during the crisis.
“It is important to ensure the sovereignty of the Russian Federation and the security of citizens, taking into account recent events,” Mishustin said at a meeting of deputy prime ministers Monday. “It is necessary to consolidate society against the backdrop of an attempted armed rebellion.”
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wagner would continue operating in Mali and the Central African Republic, calling Wagner operatives there “instructors.” Wagner has political advisers and influence operations in many African countries and provides security in Mali and the Central African Republic.
Lavrov said the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, had spoken with Russian government representatives Sunday and conveyed Washington’s view that the events were Russia’s internal affair and its hope that Russian nuclear weapons remained secure.
“It was especially emphasized: The United States proceeds from the fact that everything that happens is an internal affair of the Russian Federation,” Lavrov said in an interview with the state-controlled television network RT.
Lavrov added that Putin received “numerous calls” on Saturday from representatives of other countries who “expressed solidarity” and “confidence that we will not allow attempts to undermine the unity of our state and the success of the special military operation.” He did not specify which countries, he said, because “they asked not to talk about their calls publicly.”
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukraine had regained roughly 50 square miles in the country’s south.
News coverage by Russian media displayed how deeply the events have rattled Putin’s authoritarian state, which is built on his power as supreme leader, with the rule of law readily dispensable and competing fiefs — including oligarchs and officials — jostling constantly for presidential favor, state benefits and influence.
An opinion column in the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets said that the “most terrifying scenario” — of fighting in the streets of Moscow and elsewhere and a split in Russia’s military and security forces — had been averted.
“Russia displayed its vulnerability to the whole world and to itself. Russia dashed to the abyss at full speed and with the same speed stepped back from it,” the columnist, Mikhail Rostovsky, wrote under the headline: “Prigozhin Leaves, Problems Remain: Deep Political Consequences of a Failed Coup.”
But there were signs of a potential crackdown on Russian private military companies, with widespread calls to bring them to heel, even though they are already technically illegal in Russia. One key reason for Wagner’s mutiny was Prigozhin’s refusal to sign Defense Ministry contracts that would have sidelined the militia and submitted it to Shoigu’s authority.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, carried out raids Saturday at the addresses of current and former Wagner mercenaries, Russian media outlet Important Stories reported.
Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the defense committee in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, told the Vedomosti newspaper there was no need to ban Wagner, calling it the most combat-ready unit in Russia. Kartapolov said Wagner fighters could continue to serve in the war in Ukraine if they signed contracts with the military. Such a path may be unpalatable to many Wagner fighters, who are intensely loyal to Prigozhin.
The state-controlled Tass news agency reported Monday that Wagner’s recruiting offices in Novosibirsk and Tyumen had reopened, after they closed during the mutiny, and that the group’s office in St. Petersburg was open and working. Wagner is seen by many in Russia as a more prestigious, elite and effective force than regular Russian military units.
Another newspaper, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, called for all armed formations not officially part of the security structures to be disarmed given “today’s political reality,” in an article published Sunday.
“The events of June 24 will undoubtedly have long-term consequences for the country. It became clear that a man with a gun, if he is not a state official, is a real threat to the state and statehood,” the newspaper’s editor, Konstantin Remchukov, wrote in an opinion column. “In Russia there should not be armed people who are loyal first to their commanders and only secondarily to someone else.”
Social media pages connected to Prigozhin, Wagner and key figures associated with him were blocked on Saturday. By Sunday, many pro-Kremlin Telegram channels were rushing to discredit the Wagner leader. In St. Petersburg, local media published photographs of gold bars, fake passports, millions in cash and “white powder” reportedly seized from his properties by the authorities.
Alexander Khodakovsky, head of the pro-Moscow Vostok Battalion, which is fighting in eastern Ukraine, published a story that Prigozhin had one of his underlings beaten “half to death,” after the subordinate told the mercenary leader that it would not be possible to recruit 1,000 Russian prisoners, but only 300.
“This incident told me everything: I made an approximate psycho-portrait of Prigozhin, and I began to warn everyone of the growing threat,” Khodakovsky wrote. “It was clear to me that a person with such manners serves only his own interests,” he added. “I always cringed when I saw how the figure of Prigozhin was erected on a pedestal.”
David L. Stern in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
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