Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Wagner fighters to choose whether to join the Russian army or leave for Belarus, or even return to their homes.
“Today you have the possibility to continue serving Russia by entering into a contract with the Ministry of Defence or other law enforcement agencies or to return to your family and close ones… Whoever wants to can go to Belarus,” Putin said on Monday in his first address to the nation since the rebels pulled back.
The Russian leader said he had issued orders to avoid bloodshed and granted amnesty to the Wagner fighters whose mutiny served up the greatest challenge yet to his two-decade rule.
“From the start of the events, on my orders steps were taken to avoid large-scale bloodshed,” Putin said in a televised address, thanking Russians for their “patriotism”.
“It was precisely this fratricide that Russia’s enemies wanted: both the neo-Nazis in Kyiv and their Western patrons and all sorts of national traitors. They wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other,” Putin said.
Putin also thanked his security officials for their work during the armed rebellion in a meeting that included Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, a main target of the mutiny.
“Civilian solidarity showed that any blackmail, any attempts to organise internal turmoil, is doomed to fail,” Putin said.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had earlier defended his aborted mutiny as a bid to save his mercenary outfit and expose the failures of Russia’s military leadership — but not to challenge the Kremlin.
The rogue warlord’s first audio message since calling off his troops’ advance on Moscow was released as Russian officials attempted to present the public with a return to business as usual.
