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Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin and his troops retreated from southern Russia on Sunday after negotiating with Moscow to end his armed uprising following the biggest crisis in Vladimir Putin’s presidency.
Prizoghin himself remained remarkably silent after ending his uprising on Saturday night, although the Kremlin said he would travel to Belarus after the country’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, brokered a deal to end the uprising. lift.
Prigozhin’s press office told Russian broadcaster RTVI on Sunday afternoon that the warlord “says hi to everyone and answers questions when he has something good. [cell phone] acceptance”. He left the city of Rostov-on-Don Saturday night, according to video footage released by the Russian state news agency RIA, which showed people cheering for the leader of the Wagner Group.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the uprising showed “real cracks” in Putin’s authority. “This raises profound questions . . . We know that Putin will have a lot to answer for in the coming weeks and months,” Blinken said.
Blinken called the crisis an “unfolding story”, adding: “I think we are in the middle of a moving picture. We haven’t seen the final act yet.”
Authorities in southern Russia said Wagner’s troops had withdrawn from the region. Alexander Gusev, governor of Voronezh province, wrote on his official Telegram channel at around 11 a.m. local time that “the movement of . . . Wagner units through the Voronezh region are nearing completion. It proceeded normally and without incident. “
Video footage posted elsewhere on Telegram appeared to confirm this, showing dozens of military vehicles with Wagner flags moving at dawn from the northern suburbs of the city of Voronezh to Rostov- on-Don, reversing the route they took from Ukraine last Saturday.
At around 1pm, Lipetsk regional authorities said Wagner’s troops had also left this area, closer to Moscow.
Chechen special forces on Sunday also began their withdrawal from Rostov towards the Ukrainian frontline, according to the official broadcaster of the Chechen Republic. These fighters did not reach the center of the city of Rostov, where Wagner’s forces were located, and did not fight with other militias. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov assessed their actions as “very efficient and well thought out”.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think-tank, said on Sunday that the Kremlin “struggled to put together an effective rapid response to Wagner’s advances, likely due to surprise and the heavy impact of losses in Ukraine”.
“Wagner is likely to end up outside Moscow if Prigozhin chooses to order them to do so,” the group said, adding that the events “are likely to damage Putin’s government and Russia’s war effort in Ukraine”.
Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, both remained silent on Sunday. The couple were the target of Prigozhin’s rants in the months before the coup attempt, as the warlord claimed they were blocking ammunition from his fighters in Ukraine, where they form a core part of the force. to invade.
Wagner, the largest of several private militias fighting in Ukraine, has recruited thousands of prisoners from Russian prisons. The Kremlin said on Saturday, as Wagner’s troops began withdrawing from Russia, that it would not prosecute those who joined the rebellion, while those who did not would be offered contracts by Russia’s defense ministry.
Blinken said Washington was prepared for “every contingency”, but added: “We see no change in Russia’s nuclear posture. No change in ours. But it’s something we will watch closely , heal.”
He said state department officials had “some engagement with the Russians over the weekend” but declined to say whether US president Joe Biden or CIA chief Bill Burns sought to contact their Russian counterparts.
