Warmonger Vladimir Putin has suffered a brutal blow to his authority after mercenaries aborted a coup aimed at ousting Russia’s top military leaders.
After 24 hours of mayhem, Wagner Group commander Yevgeny Prigozhin called off his fighters’ advance just 120 miles from Moscow.
The mutinous mercenaries had seized control of military facilities in the cities of Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh as they marched on the capital.
But on Saturday night, Prigozhin said he’d told his fighters to return to their field bases to ‘avoid bloodshed’, ending the violent standoff that could have plunged Russia into civil war.
Despite Putin accusing his former ally of treason and a ‘stab in the back’, the Wagner chief has been allowed to go into exile in Belarus under a secret deal brokered by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Charges against Prigozhin and his troops will be dropped, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.Warlord Prigozhin, nicknamed ‘Putin’s chef’ as he owned restaurants that serve the Kremlin, was seen smiling in selfies with roadside pedestrians, who greeted rebels with cheers retreating from Rostov-on-Don.
Russia is reportedly seeking to cover up the losses of 39 pilots and crew shot down by the Wagner Group in its aborted march to Moscow.
Putin is believed to have lost six helicopters and an Il-22 plane.
The fallout from the aborted coup has raised serious questions about his grip on power.
The tyrant has not been seen in public since Saturday.
Russian state TV aired a pre-recorded interview yesterday in which he spoke of ‘stepping up efforts’ against Kyiv.
Tory ex-Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind suggested the damage done to Putin’s authority could lead to him being ousted.
He said: ‘At some stage a group of senior Russians around Putin – it’s not going to be a popular uprising, or military coup – a mixture of generals, FSB intelligence agency people, some of the oligarchs will say ‘comrade Vladimir, we think perhaps it’s time for you to retire to your dachas’.
Ex-MI6 officer Christopher Steele said Putin is facing his most significant challenge in two decades.
He said: ‘Putin has lost authority and legitimacy.
‘To see the speed with which the situation spiralled out of control must be very concerning for Putin and the people around him.’
Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, a former general of US forces in Europe, said the uprising will affect the Russian military’s ‘willingness to fight’.
He said: ‘If I was a young or mid grade officer in the Russian army right now, or even a soldier that has a little bit of sense of what’s going on, I would be very, very uneasy, as well as unenthusiastic about fighting.’
Wagner Group units have played a key role in the conflict in Ukraine, helping Russia to seize control of the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
