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A mutiny in photos: Inside Russian mercenary group’s march toward Moscow
Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group mercenary army, said he turned around to avoid “shedding Russian blood.”
Dylan Stableford, Senior Writer – June 27, 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin appears for now to have survived what many saw as a coup attempt, striking a deal with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group mercenary army, which had advanced to the outskirts of Moscow over the weekend.
Prigozhin agreed to call off his drive toward the Russian capital, withdraw forces from the captured city of Rostov-on-Don and leave Russia for Belarus.
But the dramatic show of force left Putin considerably weakened on the world stage, triggering speculation that the episode marked the end of his iron grip on Russia.
Here’s how the weekend unfolded — in photos
The Wagner Group’s band of mercenaries, which had been fighting for Russia in its war on Ukraine, crossed into southern Russia and seized a military outpost in Rostov-on-Don without a fight.
Prigozhin then led his soldiers toward Moscow on a “march for justice“ to remove what he labeled as Russia’s incompetent and corrupt senior military leadership after an alleged strike on a Wagner military camp killed 30 of his fighters.
Putin vowed to strike back hard, denouncing Prigozhin’s rebellion as an “armed mutiny” that would be met with a “harsh” response from regular Russian troops.
“Any actions that split our nation are essentially a betrayal of our people, of our comrades-in-arms who are now fighting at the frontline,” Putin said in remarks on Saturday morning from the Kremlin, invoking the bloody legacy of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. “This is a knife in the back of our country and our people.”
Hours later, Prigozhin announced that the column of troops would halt its advance on Moscow in a deal apparently brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a key Putin ally.
Prigozhin said his goal was to avoid “shedding Russian blood,” but he did not say if the Kremlin agreed to his demand for replacing Russia’s military leadership.
On Monday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made his first public appearance since the short-lived mutiny, inspecting troops in Ukraine in a video aimed at projecting a sense of order. But the questions swirling around Moscow continue to mount.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called the events “yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine.”
“I think what we’re seeing in Russia over the last days demonstrates the fragility of the [Putin] regime,” Stoltenberg said Monday. “And, of course, it is a demonstration of weakness.”