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President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia held a prolonged assembly with Yevgeny V. Prigozhin simply 5 days after his Wagner non-public army firm launched a quick mutiny, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov mentioned on Monday, noting that “additional employment choices” for the mercenary group have been among the many issues mentioned.
It’s the first recognized contact between the 2 males since Wagner’s rebellion, which posed probably the most dramatic problem to Mr. Putin’s authority in his greater than 20 years in energy. However the Kremlin’s account of the assembly left a bunch of unanswered questions concerning the mercenary group’s future.
Mr. Putin invited 35 individuals to the three-hour assembly on June 29, together with Mr. Prigozhin and all of Wagner’s high commanders, the Kremlin spokesman mentioned. He didn’t specify the place the assembly occurred. The main points of any agreements reached on the assembly stay unclear, and Mr. Prigozhin hasn’t mentioned something about it because the failed mutiny.
“The one factor we are able to say is that the president gave his evaluation of the corporate’s actions” throughout each the struggle in Ukraine and the rebellion, Mr. Peskov mentioned.
The commanders shared with Mr. Putin their model of occasions, he added. “Putin heard out the commanders and proposed additional employment choices and additional fight choices,” Mr. Peskov mentioned. The fighters additionally pledged their loyalty to the Russian president.
“They emphasised that they’re staunch supporters and troopers of the pinnacle of state and commander in chief — and likewise mentioned they’re ready to combat for the nation going ahead,” Mr. Peskov mentioned.
That the Wagner officers have been capable of attend a peaceable assembly with the Russian chief and air their grievances, even after Mr. Putin denounced them as traitors on nationwide tv and vowed to crush their rebel, demonstrates the ability that Mr. Prigozhin has amassed because the chief of Wagner, whose forces led the marketing campaign to grab Bakhmut in jap Ukraine in certainly one of Russia’s uncommon battlefield victories in current months.
It additionally means that the Kremlin, no less than in the interim, may see the mercenaries as a risk higher stored inside the tent than marginalized into an aggrieved and armed opposition.
However Mr. Putin is strolling a dangerous line, with any lenience proven to Mr. Prigozhin and his commanders more likely to be met with scorn by his personal Protection Ministry, whose management had been the item of Wagner’s ire for months and was the named goal of its short-lived rebel.
On June 24, the Wagner mercenaries seized the southern Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don and an necessary Russian army headquarters there, earlier than starting a short-lived march on Moscow.
Mr. Prigozhin asserted that the mutiny was aimed not at toppling Mr. Putin or his authorities, however at eradicating the highest leaders of the Russian army, Protection Minister Sergei Ok. Shoigu and Chief of the Common Workers Valery V. Gerasimov.
However, Mr. Putin hit again arduous, showing in a nationwide deal with to denounce the rebellion as traitorous and warn towards a descent into a brand new Russian civil struggle. Mr. Putin promised the harshest punishment for many who had “consciously chosen the trail of betrayal.”
However the harsh punishments didn’t come.
Hours later, the Kremlin introduced a deal, apparently brokered by the autocratic Belarusian chief Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, beneath which Mr. Prigozhin would stand down, keep away from prosecution and depart Russia for Belarus. Wagner fighters who had participated within the mutiny would additionally go free and keep away from punishment; those that didn’t take part can be given the prospect to signal Russian army contracts.
The settlement prompted outrage amongst some Russian commentators, who have been exasperated that the insurrectionist mercenaries have been going through zero punishment, regardless of having shot down Russian plane, leaving an unspecified variety of personnel useless.
The Kremlin has modified its story about Mr. Prigozhin’s whereabouts. On June 29, the day of the assembly between Mr. Putin and Mr. Prigozhin, the Kremlin spokesman informed reporters that he didn’t know the place the mercenary boss was.
The next week, on July 6, Mr. Peskov mentioned the Kremlin had neither the “potential nor the need” to trace Mr. Prigozhin’s actions.
The following day, the French newspaper Libération reported that Mr. Putin had met with Mr. Prigozhin and his commanders on the Kremlin to “negotiate the destiny of his empire.”
On Monday, Mr. Peskov confirmed that the assembly with Mr. Putin had taken place. The Kremlin spokesman added, “The main points of it are unknown.”
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