The chief of the rebel Wagner mercenary force will go to Belarus and will not face charges after calling off his troops\u2019 advance on Moscow, the Russian government said, easing the country\u2019s most serious security crisis in decades.
The feud between Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russia\u2019s military brass came to a violent head in the past day, with his forces capturing a key army headquarters in southern Russia on Saturday and then heading north to threaten the capital.
Within hours of Prigozhin\u2019s about-face, the Kremlin announced he would leave for Belarus and Russia would not prosecute him or Wagner\u2019s members.
It had been a dramatic day, with President Vladimir Putin warning against civil war, Moscow telling locals to stay off the streets and Kyiv revelling in the chaos engulfing its enemy.
The tide shifted suddenly when Prigozhin made the stunning announcement that his troops were \u201cturning our columns around and going back to field camps\u201d to avoid bloodshed in the Russian capital.
Prigozhin, who has feuded bitterly with Moscow\u2019s military leadership even as his outfit led parts of Russia\u2019s Ukraine offensive, said he understood the importance of the moment and did not want to \u201cspill Russian blood\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wagner troops cheered \u2018Early signs of revolt\u2019 \u2018A blow to Russia\u2019 Muscovites made uneasy by revolt, Ukrainians pleased The chief of the rebel Wagner mercenary force will go to Belarus and will not face charges after calling off his troops\u2019 advance on Moscow…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/strong>By early Sunday, Wagner had pulled fighters and equipment from Rostov-on-Don, where they had seized the military headquarters, said the regional governor.
But before they left, dozens of residents were cheering and chanting \u201cWagner! Wagner!\u201d outside the military headquarters they had captured.
Authorities in the southern Lipetsk region announced the lifting of restrictions after earlier reporting Wagner fighters in their territory, where the local capital is 420 kilometres south of Moscow.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said he had negotiated a truce with Prigozhin, drawing thanks from Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later told reporters that the \u201ccriminal case against him (Prigozhin) will be dropped. He himself will go to Belarus.\u201d Peskov also said that members of Wagner who had taken part in what authorities termed an \u201carmed rebellion\u201d would not be prosecuted.
\u201cAvoiding bloodshed, internal confrontation, and clashes with unpredictable results was the highest goal,\u201d Peskov added.
In Ukraine, government officials said the situation had \u201chumiliated\u201d Putin. \u201cPrigozhin humiliated Putin\/the state and showed that there is no longer a monopoly on violence,\u201d presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.
While Russia claimed the rebellion had no impact on its Ukraine campaign, Kyiv said the unrest offered a \u201cwindow of opportunity\u201d as the nation pressed its long-awaited counter-offensive.
Analysts said there were likely to be consequences for Prigozhin and Wagner.
\u201cThere has to be, otherwise the message is that a military force can openly challenge the state, and others have to learn that the Russian state indeed has a monopoly on violence inside the country,\u201d Samuel Bendett, a researcher at the Center for Naval Analyses, tweeted.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, said cooperation between Wagner and the Russian military was likely to suffer.
\u201cPutin and the security services will likely try to weaken Wagner or remove Prigozhin,\u201d Lee tweeted.
\u201cGiven Wagner\u2019s presence overseas, the greatest effects from this event may be felt in MENA\/Africa\u201d, where Wagner has a large presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>While the Kremlin appeared to have been caught on the back foot, US spy agencies picked up signs days ago that Prigozhin was planning to act, US media reported.
They began tracking indications that Prigozhin and his mercenary force intended to move against the military leadership in mid-June, the Washington Post said, adding US spy agencies believed Putin was informed the Wagner chief was plotting his rebellion at least a day before it happened.
The United States and its allies publicly stayed on the sidelines as officials waited to see how the revolt would play out.
US President Joe Biden spoke with the leaders of France, Germany and Britain amid concerns that Putin\u2019s control over the nuclear-armed country could be slipping.
Moscow issued a stiff warning to the United States and allies to stay back. \u201cThe rebellion plays into the hands of Russia\u2019s external enemies,\u201d the foreign ministry said.
Before Prigozhin\u2019s climbdown, Russian regular forces had launched what one regional governor called a \u201ccounter-terrorist operation\u201d to halt the Wagner advance northwards up a main highway towards Moscow.
In the capital, the mayor urged Muscovites to stay indoors and declared Monday a day off work.
Security was tightened in the city centre, with armed men in flak jackets guarding the parliament building and Red Square closed off to the public.
\u201cI don\u2019t know how to react. In any case it\u2019s very sad this is happening,\u201d 35-year-old Yelena told AFP, declining to give her last name.
All road traffic restrictions that had been imposed in Rostov, Lipetsk and other regions during the crisis have been lifted, state-run TASS reported, citing the federal road agency.
The measures came after Prigozhin announced his troops had taken control of the military command centre and airbase in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, the nerve centre of Russia\u2019s offensive in Ukraine.
Russia\u2019s Federal Road Agency urged residents of the Moscow region to refrain from travelling along the M-4 \u201cDon\u201d major expressway until 10am (7am GMT).
The agency had said earlier in the day on the Telegram messaging app, in a post now deleted, that traffic restrictions on the highway in the Moscow and Tula regions remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Responding to the challenge in a televised address, Putin accused Prigozhin of a \u201cstab in the back\u201d that posed a threat to Russia\u2019s very survival.
\u201cAny internal turmoil is a deadly threat to our statehood and to us as a nation. This is a blow to Russia and to our people,\u201d Putin said, demanding national unity.
\u201cExtravagant ambitions and personal interests led to treason,\u201d Putin said, referring to Prigozhin, who began building his power base as a catering contractor.
As the insurrection force headed north through Voronezh and Lipetsk towards Moscow, the capital\u2019s mayor announced that \u201canti-terrorist\u201d measures were being taken.
Critical facilities were \u201cunder reinforced protection\u201d, TASS reported, citing a law enforcement source.
While Prigozhin\u2019s outfit fought at the forefront of Russia\u2019s offensive in Ukraine, he repeatedly blamed Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, for his fighters\u2019 deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Muscovites on Saturday expressed unease or dismissed as political theatre a standoff pitting the Kremlin against Wagner mercenaries who had vowed to descend on the capital in a \u201cmarch of justice\u201d denouncing the conduct of the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainians, on the other hand, were clearly satisfied, sometimes gleeful, at the prospect of a split in Russian ranks 16 months after the Kremlin\u2019s troops invaded their country.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, had declared that a \u201ccounter-terrorism regime\u201d was in force, before the leader of the Wagner private militia announced that his fighters would turn back to avoid bloodshed.
Prigozhin had said he wanted to oust the army\u2019s top brass and \u201crestore justice\u201d, while Putin had promised to crush the mutiny.
One Moscow resident who gave his name as Nikolai \u2014 declining like others to give his surname \u2014 watched the military take up positions to protect the city.
\u201cIt\u2019s frightening of course \u2014 you sit at home thinking about what might happen,\u201d he told Reuters. \u201cIt\u2019s disturbing, both for you and your loved ones.\u201d
Some residents found it hard to grasp the scale of events.
\u201cIt\u2019s really tough news, really unexpected. I\u2019ve just come back from university. I\u2019ve just done my last exam \u2014 and the news was really unexpected as I was prepping (for the exam) last night,\u201d said Vladimir, a student.
\u201cI don\u2019t really know how to react. I haven\u2019t really got my head around it yet.\u201d
In Kyiv\u2019s Independence Square \u2014 packed with residents enjoying a stroll \u2014 Natalia Tanich, 48, acknowledged a certain pleasure in watching the Russian standoff.
\u201cI enjoy what is happening in Russia. The inevitable conflict between Prigozhin and Putin was expected,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what may come out of it. But I wish for them to shoot each other and die.\u201d
In Kharkiv, Ukraine\u2019s second city subjected to frequent shelling since the invasion, Ivan said the confrontation was a consequence of volatile politics and the protracted conflict.
\u201cThey started the war and now they are getting it back. The harder you compress a spring, the harder it comes back,\u201d he said.
\u201cThe situation was compressed to such an extent in Russia that it became hopeless. I consider what happened a natural event. It will influence the war but I think it will not be over in a day. We will have to endure a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"