Rebellion in Russia | The Wagner Group will not be sued

(Moscow) The forces of the paramilitary group Wagner began on Saturday to leave their positions in Russia on the orders of their leader, who did an about face after a frontal challenge to the authority of Vladimir Putin, while Kyiv claimed advances in the is in its territory.

The tempestuous Yevgeni Prigojine, who had promised the day before “to liberate the Russian people” by launching his troops towards Moscow, finally backtracked in order, according to him, to avoid spilling “Russian blood”. “Our columns turn around and we go in the opposite direction to go back to the camps,” he said.

His troops had approached on Saturday less than 400 km from the capital after having seized in the morning the headquarters of the Russian army in Rostov (southwest), the nerve center of operations in Ukraine. After being cheered by dozens of residents with cries of “Wagner, Wagner!” “, these fighters began to leave the scene in the evening, noted an AFP journalist.

After the departure of his troops, the leader of Wagner should escape the prosecution with which Vladimir Putin had however directly threatened him.

The criminal investigation targeting Evgeny Prigojine will thus be abandoned and he will be able to leave for Belarus, the Kremlin announced. None of the fighters of the Wagner group, which plays a key role alongside the Russian army in Ukraine, will be prosecuted for their coup.

“No one will persecute [les combattants]given their merits on the “Ukrainian front”, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who defended the need for an agreement with Mr. Prigozhin to avoid a “bloodbath”.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Mr. Putin, seems to have played a key mediating role. According to his services, it was he who proposed to the head of Wagner to stop his advance in Russia.

“We are grateful to the President of Belarus for these efforts,” welcomed the Kremlin spokesman.

Faced with his greatest challenge since coming to power at the end of 1999, President Putin had tried to keep his hand in the face of this unprecedented rebellion, denouncing a “treason” and raising the specter of a “civil war”.

At the same time, the Kremlin warned Western countries against any attempt to “take advantage of the internal situation in Russia to achieve their Russophobic objectives”. Wagner’s abortive rebellion will “in no way” affect the Russian offensive in Ukraine, his spokesman claimed in the evening.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, Wagner’s coup shows that “the Russian leadership has no control over anything”. “The man from the Kremlin is obviously very scared,” he said.

The Ukrainian army claimed on Saturday “advances in all directions” on the Eastern front where it claims to have launched new offensives.

Assuring that Ukraine was now solely in charge of “the security of the eastern flank of Europe”, Mr. Zelensky once again urged the West to deliver “all the necessary weapons”, in particular F-16 fighters .

No prosecution

Certain exceptional security measures taken in Russia in the face of Wagner’s advance have begun to be lifted, notably in the Lipetsk region, south of Moscow, where paramilitaries had entered.

“The restrictions imposed today are beginning to be lifted. In the near future, we will reopen access to roads in the region,” said regional governor Igor Artamonov.

The mayor of Moscow had called on residents to limit travel in the city, describing the situation as “difficult” and declared Monday a day off.

Travel restrictions have also been imposed in the Russian region of Kaluga, whose regional capital is 180 km south of Moscow.

The crisis situation in Russia was also closely followed by Western chancelleries.

US President Joe Biden spoke on Saturday with the heads of the German and British governments, Olaf Scholz and Rishi Sunak, and with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, who spoke of a “possible impact” of this rebellion on the war in Ukraine.

” Stab ”

The time therefore now seems to be a relative appeasement between Mr. Putin and the head of Wagner, after a morning punctuated by very virulent statements from the two men.

Saturday morning in an address to the Nation, Vladimir Putin, in a black suit, with a serious air and a martial tone, attacked without naming him the man who dares to challenge him, accusing “the traitors” and promising to “punish” them.

“It’s a stab in the back of our country and our people,” Putin said. “What we are facing is nothing but betrayal. A betrayal caused by the excessive ambitions and the personal interests “of Mr. Prigojine, he affirmed.

Vladimir Putin “is deeply mistaken” and my fighters will not “surrender”, retorted the head of Wagner, who has been criticizing Russian military strategy in Ukraine for several months.

“We are patriots. No one is going to surrender at the request of the president, the security services or anyone else, ”he promised, attacking the Russian president for the first time directly.

In several audio messages on Friday, Wagner’s boss claimed that Russian strikes had caused a “very large number of victims” in his ranks and accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of being responsible.

These accusations “do not correspond to reality and are a provocation”, retorted the Ministry of Defense.