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Russian President Vladimir Putin grimaces during his joint press conference with Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune (not pictured) at the Grand Kremlin Palace, June,15,2023, in Moscow, Russia.
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WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin said the organizers of an armed mutiny over the weekend will be “brought to justice.”
The Russian president’s comments were his first since hundreds of Wagner Group mercenaries marched on Moscow over the weekend in what appeared to be an armed rebellion against Russia’s military leadership.
“This is criminal activity, which is aimed at weakening the country. This was a colossal threat,” said Putin in a televised address to the nation.
The mutiny took the world by surprise, and catapulted a taboo question to center stage across Russia: Whether Putin’s grip on power might not be as ironclad internally as it looks from the outside.
After they took control of the southern city of Rostov on Saturday, Wagner fighters and hundreds of armored vehicles came within 200 miles of Moscow before their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, ordered them to turn back.
Prigozhin has said his goal was never to seize political control of the Kremlin and overthrow Putin, but rather to protest a planned dissolution of his Wagner Group, his private army.
In exchange for his turning back, a criminal case against Prigozhin was dropped and he was permitted to leave Russia for Belarus.
As of Monday afternoon, Prigozhin was believed to be staying in a hotel in Minsk that did not have any windows, according to Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The Kremlin said late Saturday that Wagner mercenaries who participated in Prigozhin’s “walk” will not be prosecuted and will be given the opportunity to sign contracts to join the Russian military, ostensibly to return to the fight in Ukraine.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
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