Putin says Russia would have crushed rebellion, vows ‘justice’ for mutiny organizers

WASHINGTON
—
Russian
President
Vladimir
Putin
said
Monday
the
organizers
of
an
armed
mutiny
over
the
weekend
will
be
“brought
to
justice”
and
that
his
military
would
have
put
down
the
rebellion
anyway.

The
Russian
president’s
comments
were
his
first
since
hundreds
of
Wagner
Group
mercenaries,
led
by
Yevgeny
Prigozhin,

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.

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,
Belarus,
that
did
not
have
any
windows,
according
to
Sen.
Mark
Warner,
D-Va.,
chair
of
the
Senate
Intelligence
Committee.

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
Prigozhin
ordered
them
to
turn
back.

In
his
speech
Monday,
Putin
thanked
those
involved
in
the
mutiny
“who
made
the
only
right
decision
—
they
did
not
go
to
fratricidal
bloodshed,
they
stopped
at
the
last
line.”

He
then
said
Wagner
Group
soldiers
would
be
permitted
to
join
the
Russian
army,
to
leave
the
country
for
neighboring
Belarus,
as
Prigozhin
did,
or
simply
“to
return
to
your
family
and
friends.”

Putin’s
decision
to
grant
unilateral
clemency
to
the
Wagner
mercenaries
seemed
out
of
character
to
some
Russia
scholars,
coming
as
it
did
from
an
autocratic
ruler
who
regularly
jails
civilians
for
publicly
criticizing
his
administration.

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.