Putin Agrees To Allow Prigozhin To Leave For Belarus After Mercenary Chief Halts Drive Toward Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to allow powerful mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to go free and leave for Belarus after a tense 24 hours that handed the Kremlin leader the biggest threat to his more than two-decade hold on power and sparked fears of a possible bloody civil war.
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Prigozhin, whose troops had been the most effective fighters among Putin’s forces since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, had turned on the Russian military and led what was called an armed insurrection, ordering his forces -- which he claimed numbered 25,000 -- to advance toward Moscow before he halted his so-called “march for justice" on June 24.
The Kremlin later confirmed it had reached a deal with Prigozhin to end the insurrection, saying the mercenary leader will move to Belarus and that a criminal case against him will be dropped. It wasn't immediately known where Prigozhin was early on June 25 or if he had left for Belarus.
In return, Wagner fighters who joined Prigozhin on his march would not be prosecuted, the Kremlin said. As part of the deal, Wagner fighters who did not take part in the march will come under the direct control of the Russian military -- a move Prigozhin had vehemently resisted while leading his troops in the Kremlin's war on Ukraine.
Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka helped mediate the deal, the Kremlin said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Lukashenka had guaranteed Prigozhin's safety.
Hours later, Rostov region Governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram that Wagner forces were pulling out of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don in convoys, accompanied by tanks and other vehicles, and were headed for their field camps. The mercenary fighters earlier had captured control of a military base in the city of 1.2 million people near the Ukraine border.
It was not immediately clear where they would be based or how many had participated in the march toward Moscow. They previously had been fighting in Ukraine, but Prigozhin had announced they were giving up their positions to the Russian military.
Putin had vowed to punish those behind the armed uprising led by his onetime protege. In a televised speech to the nation, Putin called the rebellion a “betrayal” and “treason.”
Prigozhin claimed his fighters had reached to within 200 kilometers of the capital without spilling any blood, a possible hint to the Kremlin of his support within elements of the nation's security structures.
WATCH: RFE/RL reporters captured events in Voronezh and Rostov-on-Don amid an armed rebellion by the Wagner mercenary group that rocked Russia on June 24. The group launched a military column toward Moscow before its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced he was calling it off to "avoid bloodshed."
"We are turning our columns around and going back to the field camps according to our plan," Prigozhin said in a short, fiery audio message posted to Telegram on June 24.
Although the insurrection appears to be over for now, it has left the authoritarian Russian leader weakened and vulnerable, experts say.
“The fact that this was moderated by Lukashenka strikes me as embarrassing in the extreme,” Sam Greene, a Russia expert at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said in a tweet. “This whole episode may have punctured the air of inevitability that has kept him aloft for the past 23 years.”
In a sign of the gravity of the situation earlier in the day, Putin was forced to address the nation, saying in televised remarks that he would do "everything to protect the country. He also called the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkey to inform them of the situation.
The armed insurrection, unprecedented in post-Soviet Russia, put other nations on alert, with U.S. President Joe Biden contacting his counterparts in France, Germany, and Britain
Putin must now contend with the ramifications of the mutiny as Ukraine pushes ahead with its large-scale counteroffensive, a crucial endeavor that could shape the course of the conflict, including further opening the spigot of lethal Western military aid.
Prigozhin’s forces swept into Rostov-on-Don in Russia’s south in the early morning hours of June 24 where they easily seized key infrastructure, before moving north toward Moscow with little resistance, shocking the country and the world.
The Russian military reportedly fired on the Wagner forces at one point as they made their way along the highway toward Moscow, though RFE/RL could not confirm such an incident.
Top Russian officials and personalities -- including former President Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill, and Russian State Duma head Vyacheslav Volodin -- echoed Putin's call for Russian citizens to rally and for Wagner troops to halt the insurrection.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Putin ally who has headed the republic in Russia's North Caucasus region since 2007, said he was going to deploy Chechen troops to "preserve Russia's unity and protect its statehood."
'Personal Ambition'
The Russian leader said that Prigozhin had "betrayed" his country out of "personal ambition."
Prigozhin responded promptly to Putin's allegations of betrayal, saying in an audio message that the Russian president was "deeply mistaken" and that he and his forces "are patriots of the motherland."
Prigozhin began his march toward Moscow on June 23 after accusing the Russian Defense Ministry of launching rocket attacks on the rear camps of his forces in Ukraine using artillery and attack helicopters that allegedly killed many of his men. The Kremlin called the mercenary leader's accusation false.
Prigozhin's insurrection came in the wake of months of intense public fighting with Russia's military leadership over its war strategy in Ukraine and ammunition supplies.
Over the spring, the Wagner leader repeatedly accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov of intentionally holding back supplies of ammunition to his troops in Bakhmut, the site of the war's bloodiest battle.
Semon Pegov, a pro-Russia military blogger, said in an interview with Prigozhin on April 29 that there was speculation the Russian military was withholding ammunition from Wagner for fear the mercenary leader would use it to storm Moscow and take power.
Prigozhin responded that it was an "interesting idea" but claimed he hadn't considered it.
However, just a month later, after his troops took Bakhmut in the first Russian victory of the war in about 10 months, Prigozhin toured several Russian regions, giving interviews to local media in what some experts said was a clear sign of his political ambition.
Meanwhile, Putin appeared to be siding with the Russian Defense Ministry in its spat with Prigozhin, appearing alongside Shoigu in a sign of support.
Peskov said following the June 24 deal that there was no change in Putin's support for Shoigu.
In his audio statement announcing his troops' pullback, Prigozhin claimed the Kremlin had been seeking to disband his Wagner group.
Aleksandar Djokic, a political analyst, said in a tweet that Prigozhin had probably "caught wind" of the fact that he had lost Putin's favor and carried out the mutiny to prove his worth.
He said it appeared Prigozhin had won the standoff, showing Putin "he's too dangerous."
While the insurrection sent shivers down the spines of Muscovites, it was welcomed in Kyiv.
In a Telegram message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the events demonstrated "Russia's weakness" and warned that the longer Russian troops are on his country's soil, "the more chaos, pain, and problems" Russia will suffer.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Prigozhin's operation clearly exposed the simmering feud among Russia's leadership that won't end anytime soon.
"The split between the elites is too obvious," he said, adding the infighting in Russia "is just beginning."
With reporting by Current Time, AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters, Interfax, and TASS.
Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
