Withdrawal of the Wagner group | Russia crisis challenges Putin’s authority, Washington says

(Moscow) The forces of the paramilitary group Wagner are gradually withdrawing into Russia on Sunday after the aborted coup by their leader Yevgeny Prigojine which, according to Washington, exposed “real cracks” within the state apparatus of Vladimir Poutine.

Yevgeni Prigojine must leave for Belarus, the Russian presidency announced on Saturday evening, without it being known on Sunday when this exile-like departure is planned, or where the tempestuous boss of Wagner is.

During a 24-hour spree that took his militias less than 400 km from Moscow, or even 200 according to him, he shook the Kremlin before turning around and ordering his men to return to their bases, after mediation by the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, the Kremlin’s only European ally.

A sign that the urgency of the crisis seems to have passed, Wagner’s fighters left the Voronezh and Lipetsk regions, south of Moscow, on Sunday, stages of their attempt to reach the capital, according to local authorities.

The day before, they had left the military HQ which they had seized in Rostov (southwest), the nerve center of operations in Ukraine, signaling the end of this mutiny in order to shed “Russian blood”, in the words of ‘Evgeny Prigozhin.

However, in the Russian capital as in its region, the “anti-terrorist operation regime”, which gives increased powers to the police, remains in force on Sunday.

Large police patrols were deployed along the road leading to the exit of Moscow in the south of the capital, noted an AFP journalist. Monday will be a non-working day in Moscow.

No pursuit

This is where Wagner’s men could have arrived if they had continued their march to obtain the heads of the Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, and that of the Chief of Staff, Valery Gerasimov, sworn enemies of Prigojine who accuse them of having sacrificed tens of thousands of men in Ukraine in vain.

Announcing the agreement reached with the one who, a few hours earlier, had promised “to liberate the Russian people”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had welcomed a resolution of the crisis “without new losses”.

Criminal proceedings against Yevgeny Prigojine will be dropped and none of the fighters of the Wagner group, which played a key role alongside the Russian army in Ukraine, will be prosecuted even though they had taken up arms against the Kremlin.

“No one will persecute [les combattants]given their merits on the Ukrainian front, assured Dmitry Peskov.

The Russian authorities had never before shown such leniency, throwing in prison opponents and anonymous critics of Vladimir Putin and his offensive against Ukraine.

Scrutinized in all the chancelleries, this crisis “raises real questions and reveals real cracks” at the highest level of the Russian state, said the American secretary of state on Sunday.

Serious weaknesses

“The fact that you have someone inside challenging Putin’s authority and directly questioning why he launched this aggression of Ukraine, that in itself is something very powerful,” added Anthony Blinken, the first American official to comment directly on the events.

For an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, “Prigojine humiliated Putin/the state and showed that there is no longer a monopoly on violence”.

Extraordinary scene on Saturday evening in Rostov, dozens of residents showed their support for the insurgents, chanting “Wagner, Wagner! shortly before the fighters left town.

“The crisis of institutions and trust was not obvious to most in Russia as in the West. Today it is clear, “says Konstantin Kalachev, an independent Russian political scientist.

“The way the people of Rostov supported Wagner’s departure speaks volumes,” he notes.

However, Russia was able to count on Beijing’s support on Sunday. “As a friendly neighbor and a strategic partner, China supports Russia in its efforts to protect the country’s stability,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in its first response to the mutiny that Beijing called “an interior”.

On the Ukrainian front, the Russian army also claimed to have “successfully repelled” the attacks carried out by Kyiv forces in four areas, notably in the regions of Donetsk (east), but also of Zaporijjia (south).

” Civil war ”

While the terms of the agreement between the Kremlin and Wagner’s chief remain subject to speculation, President Lukashenko, a close ally of Mr. Putin, seems to have played a key role.

The Kremlin has expressed its “appreciation” to the Belarusian leader, usually in a relationship of almost total dependence on Moscow.

Faced with his greatest challenge since coming to power at the end of 1999, President Putin had denounced a “betrayal” of the person in charge of the base Russian works, promising a “punishment” and raising the specter of a “civil war”.

Russian diplomacy had warned Western countries against any attempt to “take advantage of the situation” and Moscow warned that Wagner’s failed rebellion would “in no way” affect the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

A Russian air attack on Kyiv carried out on Saturday in the early hours of the day killed five people, according to the report updated on Sunday by the mayor of the Ukrainian capital.

“The myth of the unity of Putin’s Russia is over. This internal escalation is dividing the Russian military alliance,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in the newspaper. Il Messaggero.

“This is the inevitable result of supporting and funding a legion of mercenaries,” he added.