Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea that an armed rebellion against his government would have succeeded during his first public comments since a Russian mercenary group marched toward Moscow over the weekend.
An “armed rebellion would have been suppressed anyway,” he said late Monday night local time. “Civil solidarity showed that any blackmail and attempts to organize an internal mutiny will end in defeat.”
CALIFORNIA REPARATIONS: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE PROPOSAL BEING SENT TO THE LEGISLATURE
It was not clear where Putin recorded his brief address. It had been reported he fled to St. Petersburg amid the chaos.
On Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, directed his troops to leave their positions to march toward Moscow, threatening current defense leaders. The 25,000 troops under his control quickly occupied Rostov, a city near the Ukrainian border, and got within 120 miles or so of the city limits of the capital before Prigozhin opted to end the rebellion on Saturday.
The Belarusian government negotiated the end of the crisis that led Prigozhin to flee to Belarus, though the investigation into his actions is underway.
Wagner Group members can “leave for Belarus,” the Russian leader said during his short remarks. “The promise I made will be honored,” he added, according to Meduza. “I repeat that you each have a choice, but I am sure that it will be the choice of Russian soldiers who have realized their tragic mistake.”
Putin, during his five-minute address, did not mention Prigozhin by name, though the demand that his troops join the Russian military played a role in pushing the Wagner Group leader to his short-lived revolt.
In his first public comments since the rebellion ended, Prigozhin argued that his troops were not actually trying to remove Putin from power. Rather, he stated it was about holding Russian defense leaders accountable for what he claimed was a strike that killed some of his troops.
“We didn’t march to overthrow Russia’s leadership and turned around to avoid spilling the blood of Russian soldiers. We regret that we had to hit Russian aviation. Our march aimed to prevent the destruction of Wagner. We wanted to hold accountable those who made mistakes during the special military operation,” he said, according to the Kyiv Post.
The Russian military sought to fold the Wagner Group into its own ranks, Prigozhin alleged, which he said was a factor in his decision-making, while a subsequent supposed air attack on his forces by the ministry appeared to prompt the aggressive maneuver.
While U.S. officials said the situation demonstrated “cracks” emerging within Putin’s inner circle, a spokesman for the National Security Council declined to provide the administration’s assessment of possible ramifications of Prigozhin’s actions, which included accusing Russian leadership of lying to its people about the supposed pretext for launching its war in Ukraine.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Wagner forces led the Russian military’s effort in Ukraine for months, specifically as they sought to capture the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. The battle, which lasted for more than six months, was the deadliest one of the war, with U.S. officials often describing Russia’s efforts as like throwing bodies into a “meat grinder.”
National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told reporters in early May that the U.S. estimated Russia had suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 killed in action, since December. Nearly half of them were Wagner soldiers, the majority of whom were Russian convicts who were thrown into the war without full training.
