Vladimir Putin went to the country at nightfall on Monday to defend his management against the uprising of Wagner’s mercenaries and at the same time give them a way out in the war against Ukraine. “An armed rebellion would have been put down” in any case, the Russian president asserted, “and the organizers of the rebellion knew it.” Putin noted the seriousness of doing so “at a time when the country is facing a colossal external threat, unprecedented external pressure.
The Russian president was critical of “the organizers of the rebellion”, who rose up against the authorities on Saturday “betraying their country”. But he wanted to take responsibility away from those who simply obeyed. Because “they lied to them, pushed them to death, to shoot their own”.
Putin recalled that “it was precisely this result, fratricide, that Russia’s enemies wanted: the neo-Nazis in Kiev, and their Western patrons, wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other.”
At the same time, he wanted to break a spear for the Wagners: “We knew and know that the vast majority of the fighters and commanders of the Wagner group are also Russian patriots, devoted to their people. They showed it with their courage on the battlefield, liberating Donbas and Novorossia,” he said, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in 2014.
Putin again avoided referring to Evgeny Prigozhin by name, not even when he defended that the soldiers of this group of mercenaries: “They tried to manipulate them in the shadows against their brothers in arms, with whom they fought together for the good of the country.” Therefore, Putin revealed, “on my direct instructions, measures were taken to avoid much bloodshed.” This “took time, also to give those who made a mistake a chance to think again.”
Putin thanked “the soldiers and commanders of the Wagner group who made the only correct decision: they did not throw themselves into fratricidal bloodshed, they stopped at the last line.” That is why he announced that the mercenaries will have “the possibility of continuing to serve Russia by signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense or with other security forces.”
Those who do not want to have another way out: “Anyone who wants to can go to Belarus. The promise I made will be fulfilled. The choice is theirs, but I am sure what will be the choice of the Russian soldiers who have realized their tragic mistake” , explained the president, who closed his brief message with hardly any announcements, thanking the leader of Belarus “Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko for his efforts and his contribution to the peaceful resolution of the situation.”
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