After Yevgeny Prigojine’s justifications in the afternoon, Vladimir Putin in turn spoke on Monday about the events of the weekend in Russia. The master of the Kremlin congratulated himself on having “avoided bloodshed” which he believed Ukraine and the West wanted during the aborted rebellion of Wagner’s fighters, to whom he offered to join the army or to leave.
“From the beginning of the events, measures were taken on my direct instructions in order to avoid a great bloodshed”, declared the Russian president during a televised address, judging that the West and Ukraine wanted ” such a fratricidal outcome”. He thanked the Russians for their “resilience, their unity and their patriotism” which showed that “all blackmail (…) is doomed to failure”.
Prigozhin claims not to have wanted power
As far as Wagner’s fighters are concerned, Vladimir Putin offered them to sign a contract with the regular army, to “return to their families and loved ones” or to “go to Belarus”, an allied country where their boss Evguéni Prigojine must go into exile, according to the Kremlin.
The head of state was speaking two days after an armed rebellion by Wagner led by Yevgeny Prigojine, who assured him on Monday that his objective in sending his men to march towards Moscow was to save his group threatened with destruction by his rival in the ministry. of Defence, not to seize power. Vladimir Putin, for his part, once again accused Wagner’s boss, without naming him, of having “betrayed his country and his people” while “lying” to his men.
He cited the “courage and selflessness of heroic airmen who fell in battle”, while the Kremlin has not officially communicated on the few aircraft that Wagner says he shot down during his march to Moscow. “The vast majority of Wagner Group fighters and commanders are also Russian patriots, devoted to their people and the state. They have proven it by their courage on the battlefield”, assured the Russian president again.
According to presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin was meeting with his main security officials on Monday evening.