Vladimir Putin has thanked Russia for its “unity” after an armed rebellion over the weekend was aborted less than 24 hours after it began.
The Russian president was speaking after mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin defended his short-lived insurrection in a boastful statement.
In his first appearance since the rebellion ended, Mr Putin also thanked most of the mercenaries for not letting the situation deteriorate into “bloodshed”, and said all necessary measures have been taken to protect the country and its people from the rebellion.
He blamed “Russia’s enemies” and said they “miscalculated”.
The Kremlin also tried to project stability on Monday when authorities released a video of defence minister Sergei Shoigu reviewing troops in Ukraine.
Mr Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, said he was not seeking to stage a coup but was acting to prevent the destruction of his private military company.
“We started our march because of an injustice,” he said in an 11-minute statement, giving no details about where he was or what his plans were.
The feud between the Wagner Group leader and Russia’s military leaders has festered throughout the war, erupting into a mutiny over the weekend when mercenaries left Ukraine to seize a military headquarters in a southern Russian city.
They rolled seemingly unopposed for hundreds of miles towards Moscow before turning around after less than 24 hours on Saturday.
The Kremlin said it had made a deal for Mr Prigozhin to move to Belarus and receive amnesty, along with his soldiers. There was no confirmation of his whereabouts on Monday, although a popular Russian news channel reported he was at a hotel in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
Mr Prigozhin taunted Russia’s military on Monday, calling his march a “master class” on how it should have carried out the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He also mocked the military for failing to protect Russia, pointing out security breaches that allowed Wagner to march 500 miles towards Moscow without facing resistance.
The bullish statement made no clearer what would ultimately happen to Mr Prigozhin and his forces under the deal purportedly brokered by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
Mr Prigozhin said only that Mr Lukashenko “proposed finding solutions for the Wagner private military company to continue its work in a lawful jurisdiction”. That suggested Mr Prigozhin might keep his military force, although it was not clear which jurisdiction he was referring to.
Independent Russian news outlet Vyorstka claimed that construction of a field camp for up to 8,000 Wagner troops was under way in an area of Belarus about 120 miles north of the border with Ukraine.
Though the mutiny was brief, it was not bloodless. Russian media reported that several military helicopters and a communications plane were shot down by Wagner forces, killing at least 15. Mr Prigozhin expressed regret for attacking the aircraft but said they were bombing his convoys.
Russian media reported that a criminal case against Mr Prigozhin has not been closed, despite earlier Kremlin statements, and some Russian legislators called for his punishment.
Andrei Gurulev, a retired general and current legislator who has had rows with the mercenary leader, said Mr Prigozhin and his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin deserve “a bullet in the head”.
Russian media reported that Wagner offices in several cities had reopened on Monday and the company had resumed enlisting recruits.
In a return to at least superficial normality, Moscow’s mayor announced an end to the “counter-terrorism regime” imposed on the capital on Saturday, when troops and armoured vehicles set up checkpoints on the outskirts and authorities tore up roads leading into the city.
The Defence Ministry published video of Mr Shoigu in a helicopter and then meeting officers at a military headquarters in Ukraine. It was unclear when the video was shot.
It came as Russian media speculated that Mr Shoigu and other military leaders had lost Mr Putin’s confidence and could be replaced.
Before the uprising, Mr Prigozhin had criticised Mr Shoigu and General Staff chief General Valery Gerasimov with expletive-ridden insults for months, accusing them of failing to provide his troops with enough ammunition during the fight for the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, the war’s longest and bloodiest battle.
Mr Prigozhin’s statement appeared to confirm analysts’ view that the revolt was a move to save Wagner from being dismantled after an order that all private military companies sign contracts with the Defence Ministry by July 1.
He said most of his fighters refused to come under the Defence Ministry’s command, and the force planned to hand over the military equipment it was using in Ukraine on June 30 after pulling out of Ukraine and gathering in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
He accused the Defence Ministry of attacking Wagner’s camp, prompting them to move sooner.
