Moscow (EFE).- The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has offered three options for the mercenaries of the Wager group after the armed rebellion: return to their homes, join the regular army or other security agencies or go into exile in Belarus with their Boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“Today they have the opportunity to continue serving Russia by signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense (…), return to their family and friends. Or those who want can go to Belarus,” the president said in a televised address to the nation.
The head of the Kremlin assured that he “will keep his promise” that the mercenaries who revolted will not be criminally prosecuted, within the framework of the agreement reached with Prigozhin on Saturday under the mediation of the Belarusian president, Alexandr Lukashenko, and after the head of The Wagners ordered the return of their men to their bases before they reached the Russian capital.
In exchange, he was given guarantees that he would not be tried for organizing armed rebellion, a charge for which he could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. He, moreover, will have to go into exile in Belarus.
Putin reappears in a new message to the nation
Putin, who had remained silent since his address to the nation on Saturday morning, when he called the mutinous Wagnerites traitors and vowed to punish them, said Monday that “in any case, an armed rebellion would have been put down,” but that the organizers had realized this and had “resorted to criminal acts”.
He said the aim of the mutiny, which came as “our comrades are dying” at the front, was to “divide and weaken the country”, which faces a “colossal external threat” and “unprecedented external pressure”, he warned. .
Despite all this, he stressed, “the organizers of the rebellion, betraying their country, their people” were in the process of promoting a “fratricide”, exactly “what the enemies of Russia wanted, both the” neo-Nazis in Kiev and their Western patrons and all manner of national traitors.”
Putin stated that the “vast majority of the fighters and commanders of the Wagner group are also Russian patriots, dedicated to their people and their state”, and they demonstrated this on the battlefield by “liberating Donbas and Novorussia”.
Avoid bloodshed
He wanted to make it clear that from the very moment the rebellion began on Friday night – when the mercenaries crossed the border of Russia’s Rostov region from the Ukraine, seized the city of Rostov-on-Don and began marching on Moscow – he he gave direct orders to “avoid much bloodshed.”
The Kremlin head thanked all military personnel, law enforcement officers and special services who “got in the way of the rebels, remained true to their duty, oath and their people.”
He also highlighted the courage and sacrifice of the pilots who died in their mission to stop the Wagnerite columns.
He also thanked the Wagner soldiers and commanders who stopped at the last line, for having “made the right decision”, and the Russian people for their “endurance, solidarity and patriotism”.
Finally, he thanked Lukashenko for his efforts and his “contribution to the peaceful resolution of the situation.”