MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin held Kremlin talks with Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin days after denouncing an armed mutiny he had led as treasonous, Putin’s spokesman said on Monday, as Russia’s top general resurfaced for the first time.

The meeting with Prigozhin, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, 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 assumed the presidency on the last day of 1999.

Much of what happened on June 24, the day of the mutiny, and how the authorities are handling its aftermath remains unclear.

One of the biggest mysteries is why Prigozhin does not yet appear to have fulfilled the terms of the deal which ended the standoff, what his future plans and those of his fighters are, and why he does not appear to have been punished by the Kremlin.

Meeting held in Kremlin on June 29, five days after aborted mutiny

The fact that Prigozhin and his top field commanders sat down with Putin in the Kremlin days after the Russian leader called their actions a treasonous “stab in the back” which could have pushed Russia into a chaotic civil war is certain to raise more questions about what is going on behind the scenes.

Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told reporters that Putin had invited 35 people to the three-hour meeting, including Prigozhin and Wagner unit field commanders.

“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.

He said Putin had listened to the commanders’ own explanations of what had happened and had offered them further options for employment and combat.

The brief mutiny saw Wagner fighters seize control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don along with its military headquarters building and shoot down an unspecified number of military helicopters, killing their pilots.

Peskov said Wagner commanders had reaffirmed their loyalty to Putin at the Kremlin meeting.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2023