Putin Met With Prigozhin Days After Wagner Mutiny – The rift between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Wagner Group chief Vevgeny Prigozhin may have been greatly exaggerated. That is how it sounds as the Kremlin is reporting the two met last month to hash things out following the mercenary unit’s short-lived mutiny that began on June 23.
Prigozhin was among 35 people invited to Moscow who were invited to the meeting.
News of the meeting first appeared in the French news outlet Liberation, and the Kremlin confirmed it via the state-run Tass on Monday.
“The president did hold such a meeting,” Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov explained. “He invited 35 people – all the squad commanders and the leadership of the [private military] company, including Prigozhin. The meeting took place in the Kremlin on June 29 and lasted for nearly three hours.”
This is the first time that the Kremlin has acknowledged that there was an in-person meeting between Putin and the Wagner Group leadership – which presented the first real challenge to the Russian president’s nearly two-decade rule.
Clearing the Air with Putin?
Peskov claimed to be unaware of all details of the meeting, but said that Putin offered his assessment of the Wagner Group’s actions on the frontline during the “special military operation and the June 24 events” – and that he also listened to the mercenary commanders.
“(Putin) offered them further options for employment and further use in combat,” the presidential spokesman added. “The commanders themselves shared their version of what happened [on June 24], they emphasized that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the supreme commander-in-chief, and also said that they are ready to continue fighting for the Fatherland. This is all we can say about this meeting.
A Breaking Point
Tensions had been simmering between the Wagner Group and the Russian Ministry of Defense over the conduct of the war in Ukraine for months, and Prigozhin had repeatedly accused the ministry of failing to supply his group with ammunition. The Wagner head frequently took to the Telegram social messaging app to voice his frustration at the Kremlin and blamed the Russian Army directly for failures on the battlefield.
Finally last month, on June 23, the situation reached a breaking point – and the Wagner Group seized a Russian military headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don before a convoy of the mercenary force’s vehicles drove towards Moscow. However, the mutiny failed to gain the popular support of the Russia people.
Under a deal to end the stand-off, brokered by Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, charges against Prigozhin were dropped and he was offered a move to Belarus, the BBC reported.
However, last week, Lukashenko said that Prigozhin was back in Russia and his Wagner fighters had yet to take up an offer to relocate to Belarus.
This is a developing story.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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