Vladimir Putin says Russian safety forces ‘averted civil war’
V
ladimir Putin has stated that the Russian army leaders prevented an all out “civil war” by persuading mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to abort his armed march on Saturday.
Speaking on the Kremlin on Tuesday, the Russian president informed as much as 2,500 members of the army and safety forces that they’d saved the nation from chaos.
“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.”
He was joined by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose dismissal had been one of many mercenaries’ foremost calls for.
Putin additionally requested a minute of silence to honour Russian army pilots killed within the revolt. The fighters had shot down a number of plane throughout their run in direction of Moscow, though they confronted no resistance on the bottom.
Russia was plunged into disaster on Saturday after Wagner forces left Ukraine and commenced to maneuver tons of of miles in direction of Moscow on a “march for justice”. It adopted a bitter, long-running feud between Prigozhin and Russia’s army brass.
Putin stated that the mercenary group had been totally financed by the Russian state, which spent £784m on it between May 2022 and 2023.
He added that Prigozhin had made virtually as a lot throughout the identical interval from his meals and catering enterprise.
On Monday night time, Putin blamed “Russia’s enemies” for stoking the revolt and thanked the mercenaries for not letting the state of affairs deteriorate into “bloodshed”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed a news briefing on Tuesday the deal ending the mutiny was being carried out, and he had no data on the place Prigozhin was.
Under a deal brokered by Lukashenko late on Saturday that ended a mutiny by the Wagner fighters, they had been allowed both to hitch Russia’s common armed forces, transfer with their chief Prigozhin into exile in Belarus, or just return to their households.
Lukashenko on Tuesday stated that his nation wouldn’t construct any camps for Russia’s mercenary Wagner group.
However, he stated that Wagner troopers would as a substitute be provided deserted army bases.
In an audio assertion issued on Monday night, Prigozhin stated he “didn’t want to overthrow the government” in his first spoken feedback since launching the alleged mutiny.
He denied making an attempt to assault the Russian state and stated he acted in response to an assault on his power that killed some 30 of his fighters.