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Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin and his troops withdrew from southern Russia on Sunday after he struck a deal with Moscow to end an armed uprising following the biggest crisis of Vladimir Putin’s presidency.
Prizokin himself remained rare on Saturday night after calling for an end to the rebellion, though the Kremlin said he would travel to Belarus after the country’s leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, brokered a deal to end the insurgency.
Prigozhin’s press office told Russian broadcaster RTVI on Sunday afternoon that the warlord “greeted everyone and answered questions when the (mobile phone) signal was good”. He left the city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday night, according to video clips released by Russian state news agency RIA that showed crowds cheering the Wagner Group leader.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Sunday that the uprising showed a “real crack” in Putin’s authority. “This raises deep questions . . . We do know that Putin has a lot to answer in the weeks and months ahead,” Blinken said.
Blinken called the crisis an “unfolding story,” adding: “I think we’re in the midst of a moving picture. We haven’t seen the end yet.”
Authorities in southern Russia said Wagner’s troops were withdrawing from the area. “The movement of …,” wrote Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev on his official Telegram channel around 11 a.m. local time. . The passage of Wagner’s troops through the Voronezh region was coming to an end. Everything is running normally without incident. “
Video footage posted elsewhere on Telegram appeared to confirm this, showing several Wagner-flagged military vehicles driving at dawn from the northern outskirts of the city of Voronezh to Rostov-on-Don, rerouting Saturday’s departure from Ukraine.
Around 1 p.m., Lipetsk regional authorities said Wagner’s forces had also left the area, closer to Moscow.
Chechen special forces also began withdrawing from Rostov on Sunday to the Ukrainian front, the state broadcaster of the Chechen Republic reported. The militants did not reach the center of Rostov, where Wagner’s troops were located, nor did they engage in any hostilities with other militias. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov described their actions as “extremely efficient and well thought out”.
The Washington-based think tank Institute for War Research said on Sunday that the Kremlin had “difficulty responding effectively and quickly to Wagner’s advances, likely due to the unexpected and severe fallout from the loss in Ukraine”.
“Had Prigorzhin chosen to order them to do so, Wagner could have reached the outskirts of Moscow,” the group said, adding that the incidents “could seriously damage the Putin government and Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov also remained silent on Sunday. The pair had been the target of Prigorzhin’s rants in the months leading up to the coup, as the warlord claimed they were withholding ammunition from his fighters in Ukraine, who had been the heart of the invading force.
Wagner, the largest of several private militias fighting in Ukraine, has recruited thousands of prisoners from Russian prisons. The Kremlin said Saturday that it would not prosecute those who took part in the rebellion as Wagner’s troops began withdrawing from Russia, while those who did not would be offered contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry.
Blinken said Washington was prepared for “any contingency,” but added: “We haven’t seen any change in Russia’s nuclear posture. We haven’t seen any change in ours. But that’s something we’re going to be very, very careful about.” things to observe.”
He said State Department officials “had some contacts with Russia over the weekend,” but declined to answer whether U.S. President Joe Biden or CIA Director Bill Burns had sought contact with their Russian counterparts.