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On June 29, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the commanders of the Wagner PMC, including the head Yevgeny Prigozhin, 5 days after the mutiny, press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov claimed.
Putin invited 35 people to the meeting which took place in the Kremlin on June 29 and lasted almost three hours. President Putin gave an assessment of the actions of the Wagner PMCs during the special military operation in Ukraine. The parties also discussed Wagner’s rebellion on June 24. Putin reportedly listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them further employment options.
“In their turn, Wagner commanders explained their vision of the events, they emphasized that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the Supreme Commander-In-Chief (Vladimir Putin),” the Kremlin spokesman said, adding that they expressed their readiness to “continue fighting for the Motherland.”
No other details were revealed.
On the evening of June 24, the press service of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko reported that Prigozhin agreed to stop the military columns on their way to Moscow. Later, the Kremlin announced the end of the criminal case against Prigozhin. On July 6, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko claimed that the founder of the Wagner PMC was not in his country, but he was in St. Petersburg. Then, the Kremlin reported that Russian officials did not monitor Prigozhin’s movements, but recalled that his departure to Belarus was one of the conditions to which the founder of the PMC agreed.
Wagner’s rebellion raised a lot of question. Finally, company’s commanders were pardoned and welcomed back to Russia, while their meeting with Putin was revealed only after the public scandal was inflamed, including public search in Prigozhin’s home aimed to discredit the head of the PMC. However, there are still no details about the faith of the fighters and commanders of the Wagner, who were given a choice: to go to Belarus or continue to fight under the command of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The Wagner PMC proved professionalism of its fighters on the battlefield and Moscow is very interested in their deployment on Ukrainian front lines. The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko also wanted to use the experience of the Wagner PMCs, inviting units of a private military company to stay in his country.
The fact that Russian President held meeting with the leaders of the Wagner PMC indicates that the developments concerning the Wagner PMC is thoroughly analyzed and controlled at the highest level of the Russian government.
