The brief mutiny over the weekend by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group shows Moscow’s “weakness” under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, NATO’s chief says.
Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of the western military alliance, told reporters in Lithuania Monday that the rebellion by the powerful mercenary organization is a “demonstration of weakness” in the regime.
“It also demonstrates how difficult and dangerous it is for President Putin to be reliant on mercenaries, that has actually turned against him,” he said.
“It demonstrates the fragility of the Russian regime but it is not for NATO to intervene in those issues, that’s a Russian matter.”
A feud between Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russia’s top military brass amid the fighting in Ukraine erupted into a mutiny over the weekend, which saw fighters from the mercenary group leave the front in Ukraine to seize a south Russian city and march seemingly unopposed on the capital, before turning around after less than 24 hours on Saturday.
The Kremlin said it had made a deal that the mercenary chief will move to Belarus and receive an amnesty, along with his soldiers. Yet on Monday, Russian media reported that a criminal probe against Prigozhin continued.
In an address on Monday, Putin said that the organizers had “lured” other soldiers who participated, adding he had allowed the mutiny to go on as long as it did to avoid bloodshed.
“They lied to them, pushed them towards death, under fire, to shoot their own,” Putin said. “It was precisely this outcome – fratricide – that Russia’s enemies wanted: both the neo-Nazis in Kyiv, and their Western masters, and all sorts of national traitors.
However, he also thanked commanders and soldiers of the group who “did not turn to fratricidal bloodshed” in the brief mutiny, adding most of the Wagner Group were Russian patriots.
Putin went on to promise those from Wagner who wanted to relocate to Belarus could do so if they chose to, or they could sign a contract to serve the defence ministry. He added they could also return to their families if they wished.
“The promise I made will be fulfilled.”
He used the speech to pay tribute to pilots who were killed in the attempted mutiny as well, confirming earlier reports by military bloggers that several planes were shot down by Prigozhin’s Wagner militia.
“The courage and self-sacrifice of the fallen heroes – pilots – saved Russia from tragic devastating consequences,” Putin said.
There has been no official information about how many pilots were killed or the number of aircraft shot down.
Russia has relied heavily on Wagner for its war against Ukraine, and the mercenary group has fought some of the bloodiest battles since the conflict began on Feb. 24, 2022.
The mutiny was an unprecedented challenge to Putin’s authority in Russia and the events have left governments, both friendly and hostile to Russia, looking for answers to what could happen next in the country with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.
“Everyone has a lot of questions about what this actually means, but we don’t yet have a lot of answers and too much speculation right now would probably be extremely counterproductive,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Iceland on Monday.
“What we are doing, as we always will be, is discussing possible challenges and possible consequences for our own security, for our people’s security, for global stability — that is our highest preoccupation. It is obviously an internal issue for Russia to work through, but we need to stand and continue to be strong in support of Ukraine, in support of the rules-based order, and that’s where we will remain.”
Later in the day he elaborated on why he took that cautious approach.
“We are watching, of course, and we are reflecting carefully on what the implications could be either in Ukraine or elsewhere along eastern Europe, including in Latvia where Canadians are stationed right now,” Trudeau told reporters.
“We need to make sure that we are not facilitating the liberal use of propaganda and disinformation that we know the Russians tend to do.”
Officials have still given no details about the deal that abruptly ended the mutiny.
Putin had previously said Saturday that the rebellion put Russia’s very existence under threat and vowed to punish those behind it. The Kremlin released a video Monday from him congratulating participants of an industrial forum, containing no indication of when it had been filmed.
In another move apparently intended to convey normality, authorities released video showing Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. The mutineers had demanded he be sacked, leading to speculation that his removal might have been part of the arrangement that ended the revolt.
There was still no public sign of Prigozhin, last seen on Saturday smiling in the back of an SUV as he left the southern city of Rostov-On-Don, captured by his men before he ordered them to stand down.
However, he released audio on Monday defending the revolt as a reaction to an attack on his force that killed some of his 30 fighters.
“We started our march because of an injustice,” Prigozhin said in an 11-minute-long recording. He didn’t offer any details as to where he was or what his future plans are.
U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders of several of Ukraine’s European allies discussed events in Russia over the weekend, but western officials have been muted in their public comments.
Biden told reporters in Washington Monday that allies agreed they’d give Putin “no excuse” to blame the weekend’s events on the West.
“We made it clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This is part of a struggle within the Russian system,” he said.
“We’re going to keep assessing the fallout of this weekend’s events and the implications for Russia and Ukraine, but it’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going.”
The State Department also spoke on the aborted mutiny, saying that the situation in Russia remained dynamic but did not have details on where Prigozhin had gone.
Spokesperson Matthew Miller, however, commented that the weekend events were “new.”
“It is certainly a new thing to see President Putin’s leadership directly challenged,” Miller said. “It is a new thing to see Yevgeny Prigozhin directly questioning the rationale for this war and calling out that the war has been conducted essentially based on a lie.”
He added the U.S. would continue to not take a position on leadership of Russia, or its ministries, but it remained firm on its policies regarding Moscow “not invading its neighbours.”
U.S. National Security spokesperson John Kirby stressed Monday that various diplomatic channels had been used to send Russia a message that there was no U.S. involvement in the uprising. He did not say how the Kremlin had responded, however.
“We had good, direct communications with the Russians over the course of the weekend,” Kirby said. “It’s our expectation that that would be able to continue going forward.”
British foreign minister James Cleverly said Monday the aborted mutiny represented an unprecedented challenge to Putin.
“Prigozhin’s rebellion is an unprecedented challenge to President Putin’s authority and it is clear cracks are emerging in Russian support for the war,” he told parliament.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters Monday the revolt showed that the war is “cracking Russia’s political system.”
“The monster that Putin created with Wagner, the monster is biting him now,” Borrell said.
“The monster is acting against his creator.”
— with files from Global News’ Sean Previl, the Canadian Press, Reuters and The Associated Press