The Kremlin said Monday that President Vladimir Putin had met with Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin days after the mercenary group attempted to topple Russia’s military leadership.
The meeting in the Kremlin took place on June 29, several days after the short-lived rebellion.
“Indeed, the president had such a meeting,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding 35 people had taken part including Wagner’s top leaders and Prigozhin himself.
“The president gave his assessment of the events of June 24,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, referring to the aborted insurrection.
He said that Putin also “listened to accounts” given by Wagner commanders.
The Kremlin’s announcement came after Putin condemned the mutineers as “traitors” and warned against the danger of civil war.
After sending soldiers to Ukraine in February 2022, Putin relied largely on Wagner mercenaries, but Prigozhin clashed with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov.
Prigozhin accused Russia’s top brass of wanting to “steal” Wagner’s triumphs and blasted Moscow’s “monstrous bureaucracy” for impeding military progress.
He said that he ordered his forces to march on Moscow because the defense ministry sought to disband Wagner following its battlefield victories.
The Russian FSB security force first opened a criminal investigation into demands for “an armed mutiny,” but later dropped the matter once Prigozhin called off his soldiers.
– ‘Staunch supporters’ –
Just over two weeks after the aborted mutiny, there is still significant uncertainty surrounding the fate of the Wagner group and the deal that ended the rebellion against Russia’s top military brass.
Under the plan, the mercenary chief and some of his fighters were expected to be exiled to Belarus.
Wagner troops that wanted to keep fighting for Russia would sign contracts with the regular army.
During the three-and-a-half-hour meeting in the Kremlin with Wagner commanders, Putin “offered them alternative options for employment”, including in combat roles.
Observers see the rebellion as the biggest challenge to Putin’s authority during his more than 20-year rule.
Wagner commanders “stressed that they are staunch supporters… of the head of state”, Peskov said.
“They also said that they were ready to continue fighting for the motherland.”
Last week, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who acted as a mediator in the deal with Wagner, said that neither Prigozhin nor his men were in his country.
Speculation has been rife that there could be a reshuffle among Russia’s military leadership.
Defence Minister Shoigu remained in office, and Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, made his first public appearance since the mutiny in a televised clip provided by the ministry of defence on Monday.
Officials informed Gerasimov in the video on a Sunday attempt by Ukraine to strike Russia and the occupied Crimean peninsula.
According to General Viktor Afzalov, Russia’s air defense intercepted three Ukrainian S-200 missiles.
The fate of Sergei Surovikin, the chief of Russia’s aerospace forces, who is thought to be sympathetic to Wagner, remains unknown.
The footage released Monday did not show Surovikin, who officially remains Gerasimov’s deputy.