Putin's ultimatum to Wagner: "They join the army or stay in Minsk"
In a 5-minute speech, the Russian president never mentioned Prigozhin, head of the militia who led the mutiny march towards Moscow on Friday: "The bloodbath was avoided"The mercenaries of the Wagner Brigade «join the army or stay in Minsk» .
Vladimir Putin 's ultimatum to Prigozhin and his followers comes in a televised address to the nation , two days after the coup attempt still full of obscure points and to be clarified.
Meanwhile, preparations began this morning for the transfer of Wagner's heavy military equipment to Russian troops , the Moscow Defense Ministry said. While the FSB has filed the case for armed insurrection against the militiamen.
"The danger has passed, the mutineers have failed to break Russia apart, the criminal attempts to create unrest have failed and the country has been saved from destruction thanks to our military and security services ."
A speech lasting about five minutes, like the one on Saturday morning in which the president denounced the "betrayal" of Wagner's militias who were heading towards Moscow before stopping thanks, at least officially, to an agreement brokered by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
" We avoided a bloodbath, the revolt would have been suffocated anyway but I didn't give the order to fire on the rioters ," Putin added. Then the ultimatum, which is also a concession to Wagner's militiamen: " They can move to Belarus without having to be tried or they can put themselves at the service of the Ministry of Defence ". That of Serghei Shoigu , Prigozhin's number one enemy, who attacked the Defense Minister and the Chief of Staff with several videos released on Telegram in recent weeks, before launching the attack, due precisely to the fact that Wagner should have joined the Russian official army from 1 July.
Putin never mentioned the name of militia leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in 5 minutes.
«The neo-Nazis - the tsar chanted in a dark suit and tie with the Russian flag at his side - wanted Russian soldiers to kill other Russians, for our society to split, to suffocate in blood. Instead all our soldiers, our special services, managed to keep their loyalty to their country , they saved Russia from destruction.
Soon after, Putin met with the heads of the security agencies and the defense minister . Two days after the attempted mutiny, therefore, Russia is trying to show that everything is back to normal. Special security measures in Moscow were lifted and Shoigu himself reappeared on video in the morning, shown on television visiting troops at the front. Footage that, according to some Russian bloggers, would be recorded and date back to Friday.
(Unioneonline/L)