Russian President Vladimir Putin and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin have both broken their silence, after the paramilitary group’s short-lived and chaotic insurrection at the weekend threw the country into uncertainty, in what the Russian leader described as a betrayal of the country.
Putin did not mention Prigozhin by name, but he accused “the organizers of the rebellion” of “betraying their country, their people, (and) also betrayed those who were drawn into the crime.”
“They lied to them, pushed them to death, under fire, to shoot at their own. It was precisely this outcome – fratricide – that Russia’s enemies wanted,” he said in the five-minute speech, which appeared to be pre-recorded from inside the Kremlin, according to Russian state media TASS.