Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday blasted organizers of a weekend revolt, the gravest threat yet to his power, as “traitors” who played into the hands of Ukraine’s government and its allies.
Speaking in a stern tone and looking tired in a five-minute TV address near midnight, Putin sought to project stability. He tried to strike a balance between criticizing the uprising’s perpetrators to prevent another crisis, and not antagonizing the bulk of the mercenaries and their hardline supporters, some of whom are incensed at the Kremlin’s handling of the situation.
Abbas Gallyamov, a former Kremlin speechwriter turned political analyst, called the address weak. In a Facebook post, he said it was a sign that Putin is"acutely dissatisfied with how he looked in this whole story and is trying to correct the situation.” Western officials have been muted in their public comments on the mutiny, and President Joe Biden said Monday that the U.S. and NATO were not involved. Speaking at the White House, Biden said he was cautious about speaking publicly because he wanted to give “Putin no excuse to blame this on the West and blame this on NATO.”Prigozhin said he had been acting to prevent the destruction of Wagner, his private military company.
Prigozhin boasted 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 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 his address Monday, Putin didn't repeat threats he had made Saturday to punish the mutiny's leaders.
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.
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