Putin’s message for Wagner fighters; meets top security officials

Days after the short-lived revolt march by the Wagner Group against Russia’s military leadership that died down on the way to Moscow, President Vladimir Putin addressed the nation in a short speech with just as much vitriol as his last address.

Reiterating his ‘traitor’ remark for the organisers of the armed rebellion, Putin again vowed to bring them ‘to justice’. He said the organisers were being played into the hands of Ukraine’s government and its allies.

The insurrection lasted for about 24 hours after mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Friday called for an armed rebellion to oust the military leadership.

Here are the top 10 developments that unfolded in Russia

Despite vowing for bringing the rebel organisers to justice, President Putin called the regular Wagner troops ‘patriots’. He said these fighters would be allowed to either join the army, move to Belarus or return home.

According to Kremlin, Putin held a meeting with the country’s top security, law enforcement and military officials along with defence minister Sergei Shoigu. He thanked members of his team for their work over the weekend.

He accused Ukraine and its western allies of wanting Russia to ‘kill each other’ during the revolt.

Putin also said he had issued order as the rebellion situation unfolded to avoid bloodshed. “From the start of the events, on my orders steps were taken to avoid large-scale bloodshed,” he said.

Putin’s address, which was billed as something that would ‘define the fate of Russia’, seem to have failed in yielding groundbreaking developments, according to experts.

“The fact that it took place indicates one thing: Putin is acutely dissatisfied with how he looked in this whole story and is trying to correct the situation,” former Kremlin speechwriter and political analyst Abbas Gallyamov said in a Facebook post.

In a short audio clip, Prigozhin spoke for the first time since the rebellion was aborted. He said his mercenary group did not march to overthrow the Russian leadership and the motive was to register a protest at the ineffectual conduct of the war in Ukraine.

Senior Russian official briefed reporters in New Delhi about the current situation in his country after the rebellion and said that Putin had a firm grip on power. “The current situation in Russia is stable and the contemporary position of President Putin is absolutely stable. You must know the Russian common psychology – we are united when a danger appears, and I think the situation now is stable,” Mikhail Shvydkoy, Russia’s special presidential representative for international cultural cooperation, said.

The state-owned news agency Sputnik said the Russian Parliament will work on a bill to regulate the activities of private military companies in the wake of the coup attempt.

After allegations from Russian side, US President Joe Biden clarified that his country and NATO had no involvement in the short-lived insurrection in Russia. “We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it…This was part of a struggle within Russian system,” he said.