Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday blasted organizers of a weekend revolt as “traitors” who played into the hands of Ukraine’s government and its allies.
The rebellion by armed mercenaries, which lasted less than 24 hours, was the gravest threat yet to Putin’s authority.
The Kremlin also showed Putin meeting with top security, law enforcement and military officials, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whom the uprising had tried to remove. Putin thanked members of his team for their work over the weekend. Earlier, the authorities also released a video of Shoigu reviewing troops in Ukraine.
Prigozhin boasted Monday that his march was a “master class” on how Russia's military should have carried out the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He also mocked the military for failing to protect Russia, pointing out security breaches that allowed Wagner to march 780 kilometers toward Moscow without facing resistance.
Russian media reported that a criminal case against Prigozhin hasn’t been closed, despite earlier Kremlin statements, and some Russian lawmakers called for his head. In a return to at least superficial normality, Moscow’s mayor announced an end to the “counterterrorism regime” imposed on the capital Saturday, when troops and armored vehicles set up checkpoints on the outskirts and authorities tore up roads leading into the city.
Prigozhin said most of his fighters refused to come under the Defense Ministry’s command. He said the force had planned to hand over the military equipment it was using in Ukraine on June 30 after pulling out of Ukraine and gathering in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. He accused the Defense Ministry of attacking Wagner’s camp, prompting them to move sooner.
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