Moscow: Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, and his commanders have met with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin to discuss the armed uprising Wagner attempted to stage against the army's top brass, according to Putin's spokesman on Monday.
French newspaper Liberation was the first to report the meeting, claiming that Prigozhin had met with Putin, Viktor Zolotov, the head of the National Guard, and Sergei Naryshkin, the head of SVR Foreign Intelligence.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the meeting took place on June 29, five days after the aborted mutiny, which many consider to have presented Putin with his most significant challenge since taking office on the final day of 1999.
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Peskov informed reporters that the meeting had lasted three hours and that 35 people, including the commanders of the Prigozhin and Wagner units, had been invited by Putin.
"The only thing we can say is that the president gave his assessment of the company's (Wagner's) actions at the front during the Special Military Operation (in Ukraine), and he also gave his assessment of the events of June 24 (the day of the mutiny)," Peskov told reporters.
Putin, according to him, had listened to the commanders' own accounts of what had transpired and had given them additional employment and combat opportunities.
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The commanders gave an account of what transpired (on June 24). They made it clear that they are the head of state's and the supreme commander-in-chief's devoted supporters and soldiers. Additionally, they stated that they are prepared to keep fighting for the Motherland, according to Peskov.
A compromise mediated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ended the brief mutiny led by Prigozhin, in which Wagner fighters took control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and a military headquarters building.
Putin has since expressed gratitude to his army and security forces for preventing chaos and civil war, comparing the current situation to the unrest that engulfed Russia in the years leading up to the 1917 Russian Revolution.
According to Prigozhin, the army and defence chiefs were targeted for "bringing to justice" for their mistakes and careless behaviour in Ukraine, not for overthrowing the government.
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According to appearances by both men on state television, Putin has so far maintained the positions of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, rejecting Prigozhin's calls to fire them.
Prigozhin was supposed to depart for Belarus in accordance with the agreement that put an end to the mutiny. However, Lukashenko stated last week that Wagner fighters had not yet accepted an offer to relocate to Belarus and that Prigozhin had returned to Russia, casting doubt on the implementation of the agreement.