Vladimir Putin met on June 29 in the Kremlin with the leader of the paramilitary group Wagner, Evgueni Prigojine, a few days after his aborted rebellion, the Russian presidency announced on Monday. The meeting lasted “almost three hours”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that it involved 35 people, including “all commanders and leaders” of the Wagner Group.
“The [Russian] president gave his assessment of Wagner’s activities” on the Ukrainian front, Peskov said, as well as “his assessment of the events of June 24,” the date of the group’s rebellion. Vladimir Putin “listened to the explanations of [Wagner’s] commanders and offered them alternatives for their future work and employment for military purposes,” the Russian president’s spokesman said.
“[Wagner’s] commanders gave their side of the story. They stressed that they were staunch supporters and soldiers of the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief [Vladimir Putin] and affirmed that they were ready to continue fighting for the motherland,” he continued. . The Kremlin was reacting to an article in the French daily Liberation, published on Friday, which, relying on Western intelligence sources, claimed that Yevgueni Prigojine was being held in the Kremlin where he was summoned with his main commanders.
Wagner’s rebellion, led on June 24, shook Russian power, in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine. For several hours, Wagner’s fighters occupied a Russian army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don (southwest) and traveled several hundred kilometers towards Moscow. The mutiny ended on the evening of June 24 with an agreement providing for the departure of Mr. Prigojine to Belarus, but his exact whereabouts have since been unknown. He has not spoken publicly since June 26.
For his part, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said last Thursday that Yevgeny Prigozhin was still “at liberty” in Russia, despite the agreement providing for his departure to Belarus. Yevgueni Prigojine assured that his uprising was not intended to overthrow power, but to save Wagner from a dismantling by the Russian general staff, which he violently accused for months of incompetence in the conflict in Ukraine.