Russian president Vladimir Putin praised his military and security services for preventing “civil war” when Wagner group mercenaries marched towards Moscow, as his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko claimed to have played a key role in defusing the crisis and said the leader of the mutineers, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had arrived in his country.
“You have defended the constitutional order, the lives, security and freedom of our citizens. You have saved our motherland from upheaval. In fact, you have stopped a civil war,” Mr Putin told soldiers, national guardsmen and security service officers gathered at the Kremlin on Tuesday.
“In this difficult situation, you have acted precisely and in co-ordination, you have proved by your deeds your loyalty to the Russian people and your military oath. You have shown your responsibility for the fate of our motherland and its future,” he added.
It appeared to be an attempt to project the power of Mr Putin and the unity of the nation, even as Russia’s FSB security service announced that Mr Prigozhin and his Wagner fighters would not face criminal charges for taking over the southern city of Rostov, shooting down several military aircraft and killing their crews, and threatening to march on Moscow.
Mr Prigozhin has said he regrets the death of the airmen and insists he did not want to topple Mr Putin’s regime but only protest at the way the invasion of Ukraine was being run by Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff.
He also opposed plans to make Wagner subordinate to the defence ministry, but Mr Putin says the only way its members can now continue to wield arms is to sign contracts with the military, which also now intends to seize the mercenary group’s weaponry.
“I want everyone to know that the financing of the entire Wagner group was fully covered by the state,” Mr Putin said, claiming that Moscow paid Wagner and Mr Prigozhin’s military catering company a total of some €1.75 billion over the past year.
“Hopefully, nobody stole anything during these activities ... We will obviously look into all this,” he added. On several occasions, Mr Putin’s regime of 23 years has jailed or sought to keep opponents in exile by targeting them with corruption investigations.
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Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko said Mr Prigozhin arrived in his country’s capital, Minsk, in a private jet on Tuesday, and claimed to have played a central role in persuading Mr Prigozhin to end the revolt.
Mr Lukashenko, ruler of Belarus since 1994, said Mr Putin appeared to have decided “to eliminate those involved” in the uprising, but he told the Russian leader that he “should not rush to do it ... A bad peace is better than any war. No rush.”
He described calling Mr Prigozhin and finding him in a “semi-mad state” having been in eastern Ukraine – where tens of thousands of his fighters have been killed and injured – and being incensed over what he saw as Moscow’s determination to destroy Wagner.
Mr Lukashenko claimed the mercenary boss said he wanted Mr Shoigu and Gen Gerasimov to be fired, to which he replied: “No one will give you Shoigu or Gerasimov, especially in this situation. You know Putin as well as I do ... You’ll just be crushed like a bug on the way.”
It is not clear if Wagner fighters will follow Mr Prigozhin to Belarus, but Mr Lukashenko said his armed forces could learn a lot from their combat experience in Ukraine.
Belarus borders Nato members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, who have said they will assess the security risk posed by the potential presence of a large Wagner contingent on their doorstep.
