Russia began lifting emergency restrictions in an effort to restore normality after the dramatic end to an armed uprising that posed the greatest threat to President Vladimir Putin’s almost quarter-century rule.
Putin hasn’t been seen in public since he denounced the revolt led by Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin as “treason” in a short televised address to the nation early Saturday. Prigozhin’s forces advanced to within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow before he pulled them back in a deal brokered by Putin’s ally, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.
Under the agreement, the Kremlin said Putin guaranteed that Prigozhin could travel to Belarus and would drop criminal mutiny charges against him and the Wagner fighters involved in the rebellion. It came only hours after the president told Russians that those who took part had “betrayed Russia and will answer for it.”
Prigozhin hasn’t commented since announcing in an audio message on Telegram late Saturday that he was pulling back his forces to avoid bloodshed. Video on social media showed crowds cheering him and shaking his hand as he was driven away from a military installation in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don that Wagner had taken over early in the mutiny.
The mercenary group’s forces left Rostov-on-Don and were heading to their field camps, regional Governor Vasily Golubev said early Sunday. Regional officials in the Voronezh and Lipetsk regions also reported that Wagner troops had left their territories.
Hastily-installed roadblocks were also dismantled on Sunday on highways leading into Moscow. Monday will remain a non-working day for most residents that Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced after the imposition of a “counter-terrorist regime” in the capital.
The rapid chain of events in Russia left the US and Europe to try to understand the political implications of an uprising that appeared to undermine Putin’s previously unquestioned authority in the Kremlin. The crisis unfolded amid bitter divisions in Russia over the faltering war in Ukraine that’s the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II, as a Ukrainian counteroffensive continues to try to push Russian forces out of occupied territories.
The showdown had echoes in Russian history, where leaders including Tsar Nicholas II and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev were ousted after military misadventures. Putin himself, in his televised address, drew a comparison with divisions in Russia during World War I that led to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and civil war.
Prigozhin, 62, has for months attacked Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and top army officials in Moscow, alleging they failed to adequately support Wagner troops fighting in Ukraine, particularly during battles for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
He has also repeatedly called for the authorities to introduce tougher measures including full mobilization and martial law to prosecute the war in Ukraine, warning that Russia risked defeat without them.