2023-06-27 14:03:00
After the end of the Wagner uprising, the Kremlin seeks a show of leadership and strength. Russian President Putin spoke of a “civil war” that security forces prevented.
In a speech, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin thanked the Russian security forces for preventing a de facto “civil war” on June 24. “Together with your brothers in arms, you resisted these riots, the result of which would inevitably have been chaos,” Putin said, referring to the armed uprising of the Wagner mercenaries. “They defended the constitutional order, the life, security and freedom of our citizens, saved our homeland from shocks and effectively prevented a civil war.”
Neither the army nor the population supported the uprising over the weekend, Putin said. “People who were drawn into the rebellion saw that the army and the people were not on their side.”
Putin grants Wagner funding for the first time
In his outdoor speech to several hundred members of various security services, Putin also recalled the pilots who were killed in their attacks on the Wagner column on Saturday. The members of the Defense Department, the National Guard, the FSB, the Interior Ministry and the Presidential Security Service commemorated the dead with Putin in a minute’s silence. Wagner troops had shot down several helicopters and an airplane on Saturday.
For the first time, the Kremlin boss admitted that the Wagner troupe was completely financed by the Russian state. According to Putin, the group received a total of 86.26 billion rubles (around 930 million euros) from the state budget from May 2022 to May 2023. Officially, the Wagner Army calls itself a private military company.
Kremlin does not see Putin weakened
The Kremlin continues to try to put Russia, and especially President Putin, in a strong position. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, disagreed that the weekend’s events shook the country’s power structure and weakened the president. He spoke of “meaningless discussions that have nothing to do with reality”. Rather, the events have shown how much society stands behind the president, he added. Peskow also denounced “ultra-emotional outbursts of anger among political scientists and pseudo-political scientists”.
Prigoschin in Belarus
After the uprising of the mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner army, the criminal proceedings against him were dropped, as announced by the Kremlin. Peskov justified the impunity after Putin announced on Saturday that the masterminds of the uprising would face “inevitable punishment.” Putin “wanted to prevent the worst,” said Peskov. There was a “clear agreement” to avoid the worst scenario. Putin made “certain promises” and “guarantees” for this, which are now being implemented.
Another part of the agreement was that Prigozhin should go into exile in Belarus. The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko has now confirmed that Prigozhin is in the country. “As I promised: if you want to spend a certain amount of time with us, we’ll be happy to help you,” the state news agency Belta quoted the ruler as saying.
“Belarus can benefit from Wagner fighters”
Lukashenko, a confidante of Russia’s president, had taken on the role of mediator in the crisis at the weekend and, after Prigozhin’s revolt had been broken, declared himself ready to take in the mercenary boss and his men in Belarus.
Prigozhin’s Wagner fighters described Lukashenko as a possible asset to his army. “People don’t understand that we’re taking a pragmatic approach,” said Lukashenko, according to Belta. “They were on the front line, these are assault squads,” added the ruler. “You will tell us what is important now.” For example, the Wagner people could report which weapons worked well and which didn’t, how to successfully attack or defend. “That’s very valuable. We have to get that from the Wagner fighters,” Lukashenko continued.
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