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Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin days after the failed uprising that he had denounced as treason, the Kremlin said.
Putin met Prigozhin and top Wagner commanders at the Kremlin for nearly three hours of talks on June 29, the president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on a conference call Monday, according to Russian news services. In all, 35 people including managers of the private military company were invited, Peskov said.
Putin “listened to the explanations of the commanders” about the June 24 mutiny and “gave his assessment” of the crisis, the Interfax news service cited Peskov as saying. The president offered Wagner forces further options for employment and combat operations, it reported.
The extraordinary meeting adds another twist to the uprising that spiraled into the most serious threat to Putin’s nearly quarter-century rule. The Kremlin leader had threatened “harsh” punishment of Wagner’s leaders when the rebellion broke out and later told Russians in a televised address that organizers of the mutiny “betrayed their country and their people.”
Prigozhin’s forces came to within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow virtually unopposed during the uprising before he called off the 24-hour revolt under a deal brokered by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. Putin agreed to allow the Wagner founder and his men to move to Belarus and to drop criminal cases of armed mutiny against them.
The Kremlin’s statement came hours after Russia’s top military commander was shown on state television for the first time since the abortive mutiny that had aimed at ousting him. Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who’s in charge of Russia’s war operations in Ukraine, was shown in a brief video receiving battlefield reports from officials.
Putin appointed Gerasimov as overall commander of Russia’s invasion force in January in place of General Sergei Surovikin, who hasn’t been seen in public since the Wagner rebellion ended. Prigozhin had sought to overthrow Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, blaming them for multiple failures during the war and accusing them of seeking to destroy his mercenary group.
