Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu appeared in public for the first time since Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin launched an insurrection against Russia’s senior military leadership and demanded Shoigu to be handed over to the Wagner mercenaries.
The brief video, posted on Monday by the defence ministry, showed Shoigu inspecting a Russian command point and reportedly listening to updates related to the progress of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Russian defence ministry said that Shoigu listened to a report about “the current situation, nature of the enemy’s activities and fulfilment of the [army’s] combat tasks in the main tactical directions”.
First sighting of Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu after he went dark for days during Yevgeny Prigozhin’s uprising against him. He’s supposedly visiting a command post for the war in Ukraine, though it’s not clear when or where this was filmed pic.twitter.com/vUQZc9GpIN
— max seddon (@maxseddon) June 26, 2023
Meanwhile, the Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that the Russian capital was ending its “counter-terrorist operation” as he thanked Moscow residents “for their calm and understanding”.
Over the weekend, after Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin announced in an optically appealing fashion that his men would turn to Moscow, the Russian capital had announced counter-terrorist measures in several regions.
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On Monday, reports in the state media have said that it’s business-as-usual in the capital.
A Belarus-brokered peace deal with Prigozhin diffused the crisis in less than 36 hours.
A publicity-obsessed Prigozhin has maintained a rare silence after calling an end to his mutiny on Saturday evening.
The Kremlin said he would travel to Belarus.
Prigozhin’s press office told Russian state media on Sunday afternoon that the Wagner chief “says hi to everyone and will answer questions when he has good [mobile phone] reception”.
Prigozhin-Yevgeny faceoff
The Wagner chief has been public with his criticism of Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian chief of army staff Valery Gerasimov since the beginning of the battle of Bakhmut (that eventually ended in Russian victory), claiming that his forces did not receive any support from the Russian army.
“We have already provided such assistance to all of these fighters and commanders. Please show discretion and get in touch with representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defence or law enforcement agencies as soon as possible,” the Russian defence ministry said at that time.
The confrontation reached its zenith over the weekend after Yevgeny claimed that the Russian state attacked Wagner forces that allegedly led to the deaths of an unspecified number of mercenaries. Shortly after that, Yevgeny announced an open revolt against Russia’s military leadership.
