A rebellion by the Wagner mercenaries in Russia has exposed “real cracks” in Vladimir Putin’s authority, the US Secretary of State has said.
Antony Blinken told CBS News talk show Face the Nation that the uprising by the private army and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was “a direct challenge to Putin’s authority”, saying it “raises profound questions, it shows real cracks”.
Separately he told ABC’s This Week: ”If you put this in context 16 months ago, Putin was on the doorstep of Kyiv in Ukraine, looking to take the city in a matter of days, erase the country from the map.
“Now, he’s had to defend Moscow, Russia’s capital, against a mercenary of his own making”.
Mr Blinken said he didn’t want to speculate on where the “cracks emerging” would lead.
Military experts have said the Russian President’s regime has suffered “substantial damage” as a result of the rebellion.
The events showcased the “degradation” of Russia’s military reserves, the erosion of Mr Putin’s monopoly on his security services and the lack of experience of those conscripts defending Russian borders, the Institute for the Study of War said.
While Dr Patricia Lewis, director of the International Security programme at the Chatham House think tank, said Mr Putin has been “weakened” by the events in the country.
Meanwhile Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: “These events will have been of great comfort to the Ukrainian government and the military.”
The head of the Russian military company Wagner is set to move to neighbouring Belarus as part of the deal made by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.
Wagner fighters have now left he southern city of Rostov-on-Don where their mutiny began.
By Sunday afternoon, Russian troops stationed there ahead of the anticipated arrival of the Werner mercenaries on Saturdat, had also withdrawn from Moscow, and people swarmed the streets and flocked to cafes.
Traffic returned to normal and roadblocks and checkpoints were removed, but Red Square remained closed to visitors. On highways leading to Moscow, crews repaired roads ripped up just hours earlier in panic.
Mr Prigozhin and his troops will not be prosecuted, the Kremlin says. Wagner troops who didn’t back the revolt will be offered contracts directly with the Russian military.
But questions remain over the future of Wagner in general. The military contractor has deployed forces in several countries where they are believed to fight for Russian interests.
The deal appears to be a “hasty” arrangement designed to protect Mr Prigozhin and safeguard his money and his family, Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
“What we don’t know is if he saved Wagner,” Mr O’Brien wrote in his online newsletter.
“It’s not clear how many of his mercenaries are coming with him to Belarus, or how many will be forced to now sign contracts with the Russian military.”
Putin has not made public comments since the deal was struck to de-escalate the crisis.
Russian state television on Sunday broadcast remarks from President Vladimir Putin expressing confidence in plans for Ukraine in an interview that appeared to have been recorded before Saturday’s aborted revolt by the Wagner group of mercenaries.
Mr Prigozhin has for months accused Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, of incompetence and of withholding ammunition from his fighters as they battled to take Bakhmut in Ukraine.
Wagner, whose men in Ukraine include thousands of ex-prisoners recruited from Russian jails, has grown into an international business with mining interests and fighters in Africa and the Middle East.
This month, Mr Prigozhin defied orders to sign a contract placing his troops under Defence Ministry command.
He launched the rebellion on Friday after alleging that the military had killed some of his men in an air strike. The Defence Ministry denied this.
