President Vladimir Putin’s defense minister visited combat troops in Ukraine, in an apparent Kremlin effort to bolster his position after a mercenary leader’s extraordinary mutiny demanding the removal of top military chiefs.
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President Vladimir Putin’s defense minister visited combat troops in Ukraine, in an apparent Kremlin effort to bolster his position after a mercenary leader’s extraordinary mutiny demanding the removal of top military chiefs.
Sergei Shoigu was shown on state television Monday meeting with officers at what the Defense Ministry said was the forward command post of Russia’s ‘Zapad’ group of forces in the war zone in Ukraine. He was briefed on “the performance of combat missions by Russian troops,” the ministry said in a Telegram statement that didn’t say when the visit occurred.
The emergence of Putin’s close ally came after troops loyal to Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin rebelled and came within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow on Saturday in support of his calls to oust Shoigu and other top defense officials. Prigozhin has heaped abuse on Shoigu for months, accusing him of bungling the invasion of Ukraine and of attempting to “destroy” his Wagner group.
Putin hasn’t been seen since he denounced the revolt as “treason” early Saturday in a TV address and threatened “harsh” punishment that never transpired. Instead, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal in which Prigozhin ended the revolt in return for Putin letting him travel to Belarus and dropping criminal mutiny charges against the Wagner leader and his fighters.
Despite the agreement, prosecutors are continuing to investigate Prigozhin and haven’t closed the criminal case against him, Russian state news services reported Monday, citing sources they didn’t identify. Two Russian lawyers told Bloomberg that technical procedures mean it may take time to close down criminal cases once formally opened.
Putin spoke separately by phone with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi who each expressed full support for his actions in response to Saturday’s events, the Kremlin said in statements Monday.
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Prigozhin’s whereabouts are unknown and he’s been silent since announcing late Saturday that he was calling off the assault and withdrawing his forces in an audio message on Telegram. Video on social media showed crowds cheering him and shaking his hand as he was driven away from a military installation in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don that Wagner had taken over early in the mutiny.
The rapid chain of events has left the US, Europe and China puzzling over the political fallout from a rebellion that shattered Putin’s invincible image as Russia’s leader and spiraled into the greatest threat to his nearly quarter-century rule. The crisis highlighted bitter divisions within Russia over the faltering war in Ukraine that’s the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II, as a Ukrainian counteroffensive continues to try to push Putin’s forces out of occupied territories.
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There’s “an internal power struggle in Russia and we will not get involved,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters Monday as European Union foreign ministers gathered for a scheduled meeting in Luxembourg. “We are seeing that Russia’s leadership is increasingly fighting within itself.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wagner’s revolt was a “direct challenge” to Putin’s authority and “raises profound questions,” in an interview Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation. “We can’t speculate or know exactly where that’s going to go. We do know that Putin has a lot more to answer for in the weeks and months ahead.”
China, which has boosted ties with Putin and refused to join US-led sanctions over the war, said it supports Russia’s actions to maintain national stability. A brief Foreign Ministry statement described the weekend’s events as Moscow’s “internal affair.”
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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged EU states to provide Ukraine with more weapons and ammunition to confront Russia, saying the mutiny underscored the weakness of Putin and his government.
Putin has been “seriously damaged,” former UK Ambassador to Moscow Laurie Bristow said in a Bloomberg TV interview Monday in which he compared the Russian state to a tank of piranhas. “As long as the food is coming, the piranhas are happy and when the food stops, the piranhas eat each other up,” he said.
Market reaction to the turmoil was muted. The ruble weakened as much as 3% against the dollar at Monday’s open on the Moscow Exchange, before recovering most of the losses, and wheat futures advanced.
Tensions first erupted Friday when Prigozhin, 62, posted audio messages on Telegram vowing to “punish” the Defense Ministry in Moscow for what he alleged was a missile attack on a Wagner base and the loss of “tens of thousands” of Russian troops in the war. The Defense Ministry denied Prigozhin’s claims about a strike.
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Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin lifted a “counter-terror regime” in the capital on Monday and similar restrictions were lifted in other regions as the authorities strove to restore a sense of normality.
The potential arrival of Prigozhin and his mercenaries in Belarus may create a new threat for the country and the safety of neighboring NATO member states like Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told Bloomberg TV in an interview Monday. He may get involved in training Russian troops or even join another attack on Ukraine from Belarusian territory, she said.
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“Prigozhin’s story is not over,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “He will be trying to challenge Putin again, and I don’t want Belarus to get involved.”
–With assistance from Arne Delfs.
(Updates with Putin speaking to Iranian president in sixth paragraph, Ukrainian foreign minister in 12th)
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