Days after Wagner's rebellion led by its chief Yevgeny Prigozhin shook Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin held Kremlin talks with the mercenary group founder Prigozhin and his commanders to discuss the armed mutiny, reported Reuters citing Putin's spokesman on Monday. Prigozhin led an armed rebellion against the top military leadership of Russia and marched towards Moscow in a shocking step that questioned Putin's authority and power.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the meeting was held on June 29, five days after the aborted mutiny, which is widely regarded to have posed the most serious challenge to Putin since he came to power on the last day of 1999, as per Reuters.
Peskov told reporters that Putin had invited 35 people to the meeting, including Prigozhin and Wagner unit commanders, and that the meeting had lasted three hours, stated the Reuters report.
According to Reuters, the meeting was first reported by French newspaper Liberation, which said Prigozhin had met Putin and the head of the National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, and SVR Foreign Intelligence boss Sergei Naryshkin.
"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 also gave his assessment of the events of 24 June (the day of the mutiny)," Peskov told reporters, as quoted by Reuters.
He said Putin listened to the commanders' own explanations of what had happened and had offered them further options for employment and combat.
"The commanders outlined their version of what happened (on June 24). They emphasised that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the supreme commander-in-chief. They also said that they are ready to continue fighting for the Motherland," said Peskov, quoted Reuters.
The brief mutiny, in which Wagner fighters took control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and a military headquarters building, was later defused in a deal brokered by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin who called these fighters ‘traitors’ and vowed to ‘punish’ them, thanked his army and security services for averting chaos and civil war. However, Prigozhin had maintained that the mutiny was not aimed at overthrowing the government but at "bringing to justice" the army and defence chiefs for what he called their blunders and unprofessional actions in Ukraine.
Prigozhin prime demand was sacking of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, the report added.
Prigozhin was meant to leave for Belarus under the terms of the deal that ended the mutiny. However, Lukashenko said last week that Prigozhin was back in Russia and that Wagner fighters had not yet taken up an offer to relocate to Belarus, the Reuters report added.