Putin ‘holds meeting with Yevgeny Prigozhin’ amid claims Wagner chief will target Zelensky

Vladimir Putin held secret talks in the Kremlin with the warlord who staged an armed mutiny against his regime, it has been revealed.

An unannounced session took place on June 29 — less than a week after the uprising of Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenary army — and was attended by some 35 people, including Kremlin top officials and several Prigozhin commanders, the Kremlin said. please.

French publication Libération had previously quoted Secret Service sources as claiming the meeting had taken place, but cited the date as July 1.

The details of the meeting are not known. But all we can say is that the president gave his assessment of the company [Wagner] actions during the Special Military Operation, as well as his assessment of their actions during June 24,” the report said.

Putin listened to the commanders’ explanations and offered them further job opportunities and other ways of combat deployment.

‘The commanders also gave their version of what happened. They emphasized that they were staunch supporters and lackeys of the head of state and commander-in-chief [Putin].

“And also said they were ready to keep fighting for the motherland.”

Since the meeting, Prigozhin appears to be staying in Russia rather than being forced into exile in neighboring Belarus, as his fate had previously seemed.

The claims of a sensational showdown between Putin and Prigozhin come amid a chilling separate theory that the Wagner boss could be ordered to use his armed force to assassinate Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky – and “turn his head to the Kremlin”. to bring’.

Prigozhin could try to commit “a great atrocity in favor of Russia” to force his way back into Putin’s regime following his armed uprising aimed at overthrowing Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Defense Chief Valery Gerasimov, a spokesman said. from Moscow’s most respected editors, Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov.

‘I think [Yevgeny Prigozhin] should not ask for forgiveness [from Putin],” Muratov, who runs the pioneering investigative journal Novaya Gazeta, told Zhivoy Gvozd’s YouTube show.

“But he can commit a great atrocity for the benefit of Russia.

“Maybe he’s trying to organize an assassination attempt [Volodymyr] Zelensky and take the head of the President of Ukraine to the Kremlin.

“He needs to do something that takes away the taste of what Putin called ‘a stab in the back of Russia.'”

In the wake of the aborted armed mutiny on June 24, Putin quickly retracted threats to charge Prigozhin with treason and leading an insurgency.

But the Wagner leader and some 8,000 men of his force were to go to Belarus under the terms of a ceasefire agreement brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Instead, it is widely believed that Prigozhin has remained in Russia – and his Wagner force apparently remains intact.

General Viktor Zolotov, head of the Russian National Guard, and Sergei Naryshkin, head of the SVR Russian foreign intelligence service, both attended the secret session with Prigozhin along with senior Wagner commanders, Libération said.

Putin’s spokesman said last week that the Kremlin had “neither the ability nor the desire” to hunt down Prigozhin, who rose to prominence running banquets and catering contracts for the Russian dictator before turning down propagandistic “troll farms” and his established private army.

NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg revealed that “we are watching closely where the Wagner soldiers move, and also where he [Prigozhin] moves’.

There was no sign of a major move to Belarus, he said.

“I will not go into details, but we have seen some preparations to host large groups of Wagner soldiers in Belarus. So far we haven’t seen that many going to Belarus.’

He said Prigozhin was “walking around a bit,” without saying where.

Meanwhile, Lukashenko – who brokered the exile deal to stop the armed mutiny – denied that Prigozhin was in Belarus.

‘He’s in Saint Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus,” he said.

Camps for Wagner mercenaries have been set up, but not filled, and Lukashenko will soon hold talks with Putin about the Wagner situation.

“Despite all the subtle details, you can’t lose such a unit,” said Lukashenko, who went on to indicate that Wagner was a superior force to the Russian regular army.

“I wish the whole army fought like these guys. But these are the problems of the Russian Federation and President Putin.”

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Russian security services have “the option to detain Prigozhin or restrict his movements in Russia,” but apparently did not.

His ability to operate freely in Russia suggests that Prigozhin is still protected by a number of security guarantees and/or that the Kremlin continues to prioritize undermining his reputation in Russia over attacking [him] physically or legally.”

“Putin cannot just get rid of him, which clearly shows the weakness of the leader. They are too intertwined financially and militarily to get rid of him right away,” said Theresa Fallon, director of the Brussels-based Center for Russia Europe Asia Studies, quoted by The Wall Street Journal.