Wagner’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin called of his march on Moscow hours before receiving threats from Russian intelligence services that they would harm the families of the mercenary group leaders, British intelligence sources told the Telegraph newspaper.
On June 24, Prigozhin ordered his troops to halt to Moscow after taking control of Rostov-on-Don—one of Russia’s largest cities— to avoid “shedding Russian blood” and agreed to live in exile in Belarus.
The attempted coup was part of months-long discontent brewing between the top brass of Russian defence ministry and Prigozhin.
Though Prigozhin claimed that he wanted to avoid bloodshed, the UK security officials point to a deeper plot undertaken by the Kremlin to deter one of the biggest challenges to President Vladimir Putin’s decades-long rule.
The British newspaper further reported, quoting unnamed officials, that the mercenary had only 8,000 fighters rather than the 25,000 claimed and faced likely defeat in any attempt to take the Russian capital.
Wagner Crisis: Putin allows Prigozhin to avoid treason charges and accept axile
It is being said that Putin will now try to subsume the mercenary fighters into the Russian military and take out its former leaders.
On Saturday, the Kremlin said that Prigozhin would be exiled to Belarus in exchange for a pardon from charges of treason.
Vladimir Putin hasn’t been seen in public
More than 24 hours have passed since Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal with Prigozhin to end his revolt and Putin hasn’t been seen in public, Bloomberg reported.
Belarus’s state-run Belta news service reported that Putin thanked Lukashenko in a phone call late Saturday for conducting the negotiations and reaching the deal.
But the 70-year-old hasn’t commented on the deal. The Kremlin said the president guaranteed to let the Wagner leader travel to Belarus and to drop criminal mutiny charges against him and fighters involved in the rebellion.
“Putin had to make concessions and actually surrender, and instead of defeating Prigozhin, he had to negotiate with him and give security guarantees, demonstrating in public his vulnerability,” said Kirill Rogov, a former Russian government advisor who now heads Re:Russia, a Vienna-based think tank, reported Bloomberg.
“Previously, Putin absolutely didn’t allow anyone to talk to him in the language of public ultimatums.”
Russia has been lifting emergency restrictions to try to quickly restore a sense of normality. Hastily-installed roadblocks were dismantled on Sunday on highways leading into Moscow, though the authorities said Monday will remain a non-working day announced by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin after the imposition of a “counter-terrorist regime” in the capital.
Trading on the Moscow Exchange will go ahead as normal, the Bank of Russia said in a statement
Regional officials in Rostov-on-Don, Voronezh and Lipetsk reported that Wagner troops had left their territories and were heading to their field bases.
US anticipated Wagner’s move
According to US media reports, the American intelligence officials were anticipating that Prigozhin would try to lead an insurrection to Kremlin.
Though it is not clear when the United States first learned of the plot, the intelligence officials conducted briefings on Wednesday with administration and defence officials.
Though the US was aware of it, the officials felt that if they said anything, Putin could accuse them of orchestrating a coup. And they clearly had little interest in helping Putin avoid a major, embarrassing fracturing of his support, The New York Times reported.
Officials noted that the latest act of aggression was a clear sign of the internal tensions caused by the war in Ukraine, a product of Russia’s struggle to supply its troops adequately.
(With inputs from agencies)
