RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Putin thanks Russians for unity, vows to fulfill promise to Wagner fighters

Russian President Vladimir Putin has delivered another televised address to the nation, thanking Russians for their unity amid the June 24 mutiny attempt. He stressed that from the very beginning, prompt measures had been taken to avoid bloodshed, lauded the courage of military servicemen and law enforcement officers and vowed to fulfill his promise to members of the Wagner private military company.

TASS has collected the key remarks that Putin made in his address.

Betrayal of mutiny organizers

The organizers of the mutiny betrayed their country and their people, as well as those who had stood with them. "Fratricide is exactly what Russia’s enemies wanted, including the neo-Nazis in Kiev, their Western patrons and all sorts of national traitors." They wanted "Russia to lose in the end" and Russian society to "split and sink into bloody civil discord."

At the very beginning, the president gave direct orders to take steps to avoid bloodshed: "It required time, particularly in order to give those who had made a mistake to come to their senses and realize that society strongly rejected what they were doing, while the reckless venture they had been dragged into could lead to tragic and destructive consequences for Russia."

"The armed mutiny would have been suppressed in any case. The mutiny's organizers, despite their loss of judgment, could not but understand this."

Patriotic feelings, consolidation of society

The head of state expressed gratitude to military servicemen, law enforcement and intelligence officers, as well as to the hero pilots who had stood up to stop the mutineers.

Putin also noted that public figures, political parties and religious organizations had taken a firm stance in support of constitutional order. He said that the patriotic feelings of Russians and the consolidation of the entire society were crucial in ending the mutiny: "This civic solidarity made it clear that any blackmail and attempts to create internal turmoil were bound to fail."

In addition, Putin thanked Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for his contribution to resolving the mutiny.

Wagner fighters’ choices

Wagner fighters were being used. "We know that the majority of Wagner fighters and commanders are Russian patriots, devoted to their people and state. They proved it by their courage on the battlefield, liberating Donbass and Novorossiya."

Putin thanked the Wagner fighters "who made the only right choice and refused to start fratricidal bloodshed."

The president emphasized that Wagner fighters could either continue their service, entering into a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry, or go to Belarus. "The promise that I made will be fulfilled. I repeat: the choice is yours but I am sure that it will be the choice of Russian soldiers who have realized their tragic mistake," the head of state said.

**Ukraine has lost 15% of US-supplied Bradley fighting vehicles – NYT

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has already cost it more than a dozen Bradley fighting vehicles provided by Washington, the New York Times has reported, citing anonymous US officials. Since Kiev began its operation at the start of June, the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed its forces have destroyed dozens of Ukrainian armored vehicles and tanks, including Western-made ones.

According to an article published by the NYT on Monday, 17 of the 113 Bradleys supplied to Ukraine by the US have been damaged or destroyed.

Particularly dangerous for advancing Ukrainian troops are extensive Russian minefields, the paper explained. The flat, open terrain in southeastern Ukraine is making the counteroffensive an arduous undertaking as Ukrainian troops effectively have nowhere to take cover.

The NYT claimed that Russian KA-52 attack helicopters pose an additional threat as they have reportedly managed to conduct missile strikes from outside the range of Ukrainian air defense.

As a result, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has ground to a halt in some areas, with soldiers reassessing their tactics, the newspaper claimed. Kiev’s forces have thus far managed to cover less than half the distance to Russia’s main line of defense, the report added.

Ukrainian service members told reporters that the Russians had “dug in, they mined, they are ready.”

“Given what the guys are saying, it’s not going as well as they show on TV,” a medic acknowledged.

Meanwhile, officials in Kiev, including President Vladimir Zelensky, have attempted to reassure the public that the main battles are still ahead.

While Kiev’s backers in the US are publicly calling for patience, one anonymous official told the NYT that the underwhelming results of the Ukrainian counteroffensive have been “sobering.”

“They are behind schedule,” the senior administration official conceded, speaking privately to journalists.

However, unnamed officials also insisted that given the extensive Russian defenses, the slow pace of the Ukrainian advance was predictable, claiming it was still too early to draw any broad conclusions.

Since the start of June, the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed on several occasions that its troops have destroyed Western-supplied military hardware, with Ukraine losing thousands of service members in the process.

Moscow has released video clips apparently showing its troops destroying a German-made Leopard tank, French AMX-10 light tanks, and other vehicles.

** China comments on Wagner mutiny

Beijing fully supports Russia’s efforts to stabilize the situation in the country following the aborted insurrection by the Wagner private military company, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has stated.  

The ministry posted a response on its website on Sunday after journalists requested a statement on China’s official position on the matter.  

“This is Russia’s internal affairs,” a spokesperson for the ministry said. “As a friendly neighbor and a comprehensive strategic partner of coordination in the new era, China supports Russia in maintaining national stability and achieving development and prosperity,” the official added. 

On Sunday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced it had held talks with Beijing on a number of issues, including the rebellion. According to a statement on the ministry’s Telegram channel, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko had met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang during a working trip to Beijing. 

“The Chinese side expressed support for the efforts of the leadership of the Russian Federation to stabilize the situation in the country in connection with the events of June 24, and reaffirmed its interest in strengthening the cohesion and further prosperity of Russia,” the Russian ministry said in a statement. 

It also noted that the two nations assessed the current state of relations highly, and confirmed their readiness to develop them even further. 

The Wagner PMC launched its mutiny late on Friday. Its chief, Evgeny Prigozhin, announced a “march of justice” to Moscow after accusing the Russian military of striking one of the group’s field camps. The Russian Defense Ministry rejected his claim as a “provocation.” On Saturday, Wagner forces seized control of a military HQ in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and began moving towards the capital. 

In an address to the nation on Saturday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin labeled Wagner’s actions as treason and the “backstabbing of our country and our people.” 

Later in the day, Prigozhin agreed to end the uprising and withdrew his forces in exchange for “security guarantees,” as part of a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. The Wagner chief cited the desire to avoid bloodshed as the reason behind the decision.

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Biden: US, allies not involved in uprising against Putin

President Joe Biden on Monday said a brief uprising by Russian mercenaries against the Kremlin was part of a struggle within the Russian system and that the United States and its allies were not involved in it.

Biden offered a cautious assessment of unfolding events in an attempt to avoid inflaming tensions with nuclear-armed Russia while he offered firm Western support for Ukraine in its bid to turn back Russian invaders.

"We made clear we were not involved, we had nothing to do with this," Biden said in his first comments on the uprising by Wagner mercenaries that fizzled over the weekend.

Biden's message that the West was not involved was sent directly to the Russians through various diplomatic channels, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. He did not characterize Russia's response.

At a White House event, Biden addressed the dramatic power struggle that erupted when the mutineers barreled toward Moscow only to stop before reaching the capital.

Biden said he had directed his national security team to update him on the situation "hour by hour" and to prepare for a range of scenarios, which he did not detail.

Russian intelligence services were investigating whether Western spy agencies played a role in the aborted mutiny, the TASS news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Monday.

The U.S. intelligence community "was aware" that the mutiny orchestrated by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's "was a possibility" and briefed the U.S. Congress "accordingly" before it began, said a source familiar with the issue, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Biden administration would not address a widely held perception in Washington that the uprising showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been weakened by his 16-month war against Ukraine.

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters it is as yet unclear what the ultimate implications of what happened will be, but he noted: "It is certainly a new thing to see President Putin's leadership directly challenged. It is a new thing to see Yevgeny Prigozhin directly questioning the rationale for this war and calling out that the war has been conducted essentially based on a lie."

Biden said he spoke with key allies on a video conference to make sure everyone was on the same page and coordinated in their response.

"They agreed with me that we had to make sure that we gave Putin no excuse - gave Putin no excuse - to blame this on the West and blame this on NATO," he said.

Biden, who spoke to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday, said he would be speaking to him again later on Monday or Tuesday morning to make sure they were "on the same page".

The White House said Biden also consulted on Monday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni about the situation.

Biden said he and his team would continue assessing the fallout from the incident.

"It's still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going," he added.

He said his message to allies was "it's important that we stay completely coordinated".

Kirby said the United States does not know the parameters of the deal reached between Putin and Prigozhin that ended the uprising. He said he did not know Prigozhin's whereabouts.

"We're not taking sides in this internal matter," he said.

Kirby said a new package of U.S. assistance for Ukraine would be announced soon. Sources told Reuters that the United States would announce as soon as Tuesday a new military aid package for Ukraine worth up to $500 million.

** Putin's former 'puppet master' urges an end to mercenary groups like Wagner

President Vladimir Putin's former chief strategist on Monday urged an end to mercenary groups in Russia after a mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner militia, cautioning that they interfered with the chain of command.

Vladislav Surkov, once known as the Kremlin’s ‘puppet master’ by friends and foes alike, said "private military companies" were an idea imported from the U.S., created to engage in proxy wars.

"How can a military unit be private in our understanding? This is completely inconsistent with Russian political, managerial and military culture," Surkov, who left the Kremlin in 2020, said in an interview published by his associate Alexei Chesnakov.

Such groups, Surkov said, risked turning Russia into "some kind of Eurasian tribal zone" while dividing the command of the armed forces as Russia fought what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation" (SVO) in Ukraine.

"Why do we need them today when we are openly participating in the battle for Ukraine? This is not a proxy war, this is the SVO," Surkov said.

"The army must be strengthened not only with weapons, but also with unity of command."

As first deputy chief of the Kremlin administration from 1999 to 2011, Surkov helped Putin forge his tightly controlled political system. He then worked in the government and later returned to the Kremlin as an adviser to Putin.

He cast Prigozhin as an "oligarch", detailing the mercenary's criminal past in St Petersburg.

In 1981, aged 20, Prigozhin was sentenced to 13 years in jail for robbery and assault, including choking a woman until she lost consciousness, according to court documents from the time.

"That's all you need to know about Prigozhin," said Surkov.

Prigozhin said on Monday that a one-day mutiny by his Wagner force had been intended not to overthrow Russia's government but to register a protest over what he said was its ineffectual conduct of the war in Ukraine.

Prigozhin last month said his nickname "Putin's chef" was stupid as he could not cook, quipping that "Putin's butcher" might be more apt.

 

RT