Vladimir Putin has reappeared compensated after the failed mutiny of the Wagner group against the Kremlin last weekend. In a televised statement, the president has addressed Russia and the world with a clear slogan: your government stands firm. In it remains the Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigudespite the fact that one of the main demands of Yevgeni Prigozhin – Wagner’s boss – was his dismissal.
The president has accused the organizers of the riot of committing the greatest possible insult: betray’ your countrytheir people, they also betrayed those who had dragged them into the crime, lying to them, pushing them to death, under fire, to shoot their own”, he declared in the television appearance on Monday. In addition, Putin regrets that the commotion of the weekend has suited “the enemies of Russia and the neo-Nazis in Kiev, and his western patronsand all kinds of national traitors”.
In an interview with the Russian TV channel RT, the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has declared that the Kremlin is already investigating whether Western intelligence services were involved in the rebellion. Russia has “structures for this purpose and I assure you that they already dedicate themselves to that“, he stated.
The Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, at the meeting on Monday, June 26.
Lavrov has made an analogy with the coup d’état of Ukraine in 2014 to argue that the US reacts very differently to attempted rebellions depending on who is in power and who is trying to carry out the coup: “The bloody provocations against unarmed law enforcement officers, the coup against the legitimate president just hours after an EU-backed deal to settle the conflict was signed. The US did not protest against this revolt, as did its European allies,” he asserted.
Faced with possible accusations, the US President, Joe Biden, has not taken long to pronounce itself, and has insisted this Monday that neither the West nor NATO were involved in the uprising. From the White House, Biden said Monday morning that he was following the events “hour by hour” with his national security team and that spoke to “key” allies over Zoom to be sure that Putin did not blame them for what happened.
[La OTAN dice que la rebelión de Wagner muestra el “gran error estratégico” de Putin]
During this weekend, Biden spoke by phone with those responsible for France, Germany and the United Kingdom to analyze the situation in Russia. “It is crucial that we are coordinated in our response and in what we do to anticipate. We agreed to make sure that We do not give Putin any pretext to blame or the West nor NATO,” said the US president. “We made it clear that we were not involved,” the president continued, “we have nothing to do with this, this was part of a fight within the Russian system.”
magnanimous and relentless
With a face of few friends and under a halo that was intended to convey his absolute authority during a speech that barely lasted five minutes, Vladimir Putin left two ideas clear in his words: the leader is magnanimous, the leader is relentless.
Putin holds a meeting with the heads of the Russian intelligence services, this Monday in Moscow.
While their words praised the “support for the constitutional order” to align themselves in all the necessary measures to defend Russia from the coup attempt, they thanked the people for their “resistance, unity and patriotism” and valued the “maximum cohesion of society, the Executive (power) and the Legislative (power) at all levels”, Putin stood above all of them as the absolute protagonist of the aborted coup.
“From the beginning measures were taken by direct order of mine to avoid a lot of bloodshed“, he pointed out. The leader wanted to “give time to those who had been wrong to come to their senses, to realize that their actions were strongly rejected by society.”
[Prigozhin reaparece: “Hemos dado una master class de cómo habría que haber invadido Ucrania”]
For all this, Putin, in his magnanimity, offered the soldiers and officers of the Wagner Group the “opportunity to continue your service to Russia signing the contract with the Ministry of Defense or any other security agency”. And not only that. Whoever does not want to sign will be able to return to “his family or friends”. Putin confirmed that “the promise I made will be fulfilled” and “whoever wants can go to Belarus”.
A magnanimity that no one should confuse with weakness because although Putin initially spoke of a general amnesty for all the participants in the riot, none of that will happen because “The organizers of this rebellion cannot help but understand that they will be brought to justice “. And he added: “Everyone understands that. This is criminal activitywhich is aimed at weakening the country, and this was a colossal threat to us.”
Wagner’s mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves Rostov-on-Don.
Reuters
At no time did he speak of Yevgeni Prigozhin, who hours before had reappeared through a audio message on telegram although no one knows his whereabouts for sure. The leader of the Wagner Group is the unequivocal addressee of Putin’s words —“Any kind of blackmail is doomed to fail”— and he already knows that he will have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his days, because as Putin said, the rebellion was “suicide.”
