The deal hashed out by Prigozhin and Putin, which prevented a civil war on the streets of Moscow, now appears to have been honored by both parties.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) dropped the terrorism charges it had opened against Prigozhin as the Russian mercenary leader landed in Belarus on Tuesday.
In a televised address on Monday, Putin said the “majority” of Wagner fighters were Russian patriots but simply misled by the organizers of the armed rebellion, who he said betrayed Russia.
Putin also played down the attempted insurrection, telling citizens the rebellion would have been stamped out by Russian forces but “steps were taken to avoid spilling blood” and to allow “those who made a mistake” to change their minds.
And “to understand what tragic and devastating consequences for Russia, for our country, the reckless attempt they had been drawn into was leading to,” the Russian president added.
Analysts say the feud is far from over, noting Putin is unlikely to forgive Prigozhin and may move to break up Wagner Group.
“This is just the beginning of chaos,” Olga Lautman, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told The Hill.
Meanwhile, Ukraine may be able to exploit some of that chaos on the battlefield. Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the U.S. is focused on supporting Ukraine.
“The war there continues,” Ryder said. “We are not going to lose sight of that fact.”
After railing against corruption and leaders in the Russian Ministry of Defense for months, Prigozhin last Friday accused Moscow elites of lying about the war in Ukraine, directly charging them with not of protecting ethnic Russians but of looting eastern Ukraine.
The FSB opened the terrorism charges against Prigozhin just hours later as the mercenary chief claimed Russian forces bombed a Wagner camp in Ukraine and killed 30 of his fighters. The Kremlin denies the strike.
The Wagner Group easily captured Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia before advancing toward Moscow. The deal was reached just over 100 miles from Russia’s capitol city.
Prigozhin, who has carried out several victories for Russia in Ukraine — including the capture of Bakhmut — said he was resisting signing a contract that would have dissolved his company.
The Wagner boss claims he was not trying to overthrow Putin but was merely marching against “injustice.”
“We felt that the demonstration of what we were [doing] was enough,” Prigozhin said in an audio message this week. “We did not want to shed Russian blood.”
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
