Putin meets Prigozhin shortly after Wagner coup try, Kremlin confirms

Vladimir Putin met with Yevgeny Prigozhin simply 5 days after the mercenary chief’s hours-long mutiny (Image: AP/Reuters)

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the previous scorching canine vendor turned Wager chief, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin days after his temporary mutiny, the Kremlin has claimed.

Putin is claimed to have met with Prigozhin and his commanders on June 29 – 5 days after Wagner troops marched in direction of Moscow and seized Rostov-on-Don.

The three-hour assembly, first reported by the French newspaper Libération, noticed 35 individuals invited, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated.

Prigozhin reportedly met Putin and the pinnacle of the Nationwide Guard, Viktor Zolotov, and Sergei Naryshkin, the pinnacle of Russia’s predominant intelligence company, the Federal Safety Service.

This may have been the primary identified assembly between Prigozhin and Putin since Wagner’s failed rebellion, which amounted to one of many largest challenges to Putin’s authority in his greater than twenty years in energy.

‘The one factor we will say is that the president gave his evaluation of the corporate’s [Wagner’s] actions on the entrance in the course of the Particular Army Operation [in Ukraine] and likewise gave his evaluation of the occasions of 24 June,’ Peskov instructed reporters.

Wagner commanders every instructed Putin their model of occasions earlier than pledging loyalty to Russia, the Kremlin stated.

Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin

Wagner, a as soon as shadowy non-public army group, has lengthy accomplished Putin’s bidding (Image: Reuters)

epa10709120 Servicemen from Private military company (PMC) Wagner Group block a street in downtown Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia, 24 June 2023. Security and armoured vehicles were deployed after private military company (PMC) Wagner Group???s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video that his troops had occupied the building of the headquarters of the Southern Military District, demanding a meeting with Russia???s defense chiefs. EPA/ARKADY BUDNITSKY

Wagner seized Rostov-on-Don, about 600 miles south of Moscow, on June 24 (Image: EPA)

‘The commanders outlined their model of what occurred (on June 24),’ Peskov stated.

‘They emphasised that they’re staunch supporters and troopers of the pinnacle of state and the supreme commander-in-chief.

‘In addition they stated that they’re able to proceed preventing for the Motherland.’

Throughout a separate assembly as we speak with defence officers, Putin is believed to have stated that Wagner, a non-public paramilitary group, is totally funded by the state.

Wagner has been given tens of billions of rubles in public cash over the previous 12 months, Putin stated in line with state-owned information businesses TASS and Ria Novosti.

‘I wish to level out and I need everybody to learn about it: The upkeep of your complete Wagner Group was totally supplied for by the state,’ the president stated.

FILE Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov attend a meeting with senior military officers in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has remained silent about harsh criticism of the top military brass from Yevgeny Prigozhin, the maverick millionaire head of the private military contractor Wagner. (Mikhail Kuravlev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Russian President Vladimir Putin heard from Wagner commanders in the course of the prolonged assembly (Image: AP)

‘From the Ministry of Protection, from the state funds, we totally financed this group.’

Harmony Administration and Consulting, a catering firm owned by Prigozhin, earned an extra 80 billion from state contracts, corresponding to supplying meals to the military, Putin added.

Prigozhin bristled on Telegram the day earlier than his revolt, blasting the military’s high brass and accusing Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, of ordering airstrikes in opposition to Wagner fighters.

‘The evil borne by the nation’s army management should be stopped,’ he stated.

On the morning of June 24, Wagner fighters took over Rostov-on-Don, 600 miles south of Moscow, earlier than transferring north to Moscow.

However with solely 125 miles between Wagner fighters and the capital, the coup was abruptly known as off.

FILE - In this grab taken from video and released by Prigozhin Press Service on Friday, June 23, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the outspoken millionaire head of the private military contractor Wagner, speaks during his interview at an unspecified location. Following an armed rebellion by a mercenary group in Russia, tensions are rising in and around neighboring Belarus, where the exiled leader of the force and some of its fighters are settling in. While authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has offered them refuge, that isn't sitting well with the Belarusian opposition and guerrilla activists, who call Wagner fighters a threat to the country. (Prigozhin Press Service via AP, File)

Prigozhin has lengthy been a critic of the Russian army amid the Russia-Ukraine warfare (Image: AP)

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko walks before a press conference in Minsk, Belarus July 6, 2023. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal to deliver the revolt to an finish (Image: Reuters)

President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus had brokered a deal between the Kremlin and Wagner to finish the mutiny, later confirming that Prigozhin can be exiled to Belarus.

But the place Prigozhin or his fighters ended up after staging a revolt in opposition to Moscow’s army management has been unclear ever since.

Prigozhin has not been publicly seen since June 24.

Lukashenko stated the warfare tycoon was in Belarus on June 27.

‘I see Prigozhin is already flying in on this airplane,’ Lukashenko was quoted as saying by Belarusian information company BELTA. ‘Sure, certainly, he’s in Belarus as we speak.’

However he instructed reporters on July 6 that he believes Prigozhin is in Russia.

That morning, Prigozhin was in St Petersburg after which ‘possibly he went to Moscow, possibly some other place, however he’s not on the territory of Belarus’, Lukashenko stated.

It raised quick questions over the durability of the deal, with Lukashenko including that Wagner militants haven’t but taken up his provide to relocate to Belarus.

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