Putin's Meeting With Prigozhin After Mutiny Raises Questions

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin held a lengthy meeting on June 29, days after the Wagner Group boss led an uprising against Russia's military leadership, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Peskov's apparent confirmation of their meeting on Monday comes after French publication Libération reported, citing French intelligence, that Prigozhin had met Putin at the Kremlin on July 1, a week after the Wagner Group's failed June 24 mutiny.

"Indeed, the president had such a meeting, he invited 35 people to it—all the commanders of the detachments and the management of the [Wagner Group], including Prigozhin himself. This meeting took place in the Kremlin on June 29, it lasted almost three hours," said Peskov.

Peskov told reporters that details of the meeting are unknown, but said Putin "gave an assessment of the company's actions at the front" during the war in Ukraine.

"Putin listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them further options for employment and further combat use," the Kremlin spokesman said.

"The commanders themselves outlined their version of what happened, they emphasized that they were staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state [Putin] and also said that they were ready to continue fighting for the Motherland. That's all we can say about this meeting," Peskov added.

The news raises questions about the mutiny itself and Prigozhin's relationship with Putin. Days before their reported meeting, in a video address to the nation, the Russian president described Prigozhin's mutiny attempt as "treason" and threatened that anyone who had taken up arms against the Russian military would be punished. So far, Putin has failed to deliver on that threat.

Prigozhin's mutiny was halted, and charges of armed mutiny against him and his Wagner Group fighters were dropped, after the Kremlin said Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko had brokered a deal that would see him and some of his fighters relocate to Belarus.

But just days ago Lukashenko announced that Prigozhin was in Russia, not Belarus, and Peskov subsequently brushed off a question about Prigozhin's whereabouts, saying that the Russian government has neither the "ability" nor the "desire" to follow the Wagner Group chief's movements.

Tatiana Stanovaya told Newsweek she believes the pair met to iron out details of the deal brokered by Lukashenko. Stanovaya is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and founder of R.Politik. Reality of Russian Politics, a political analysis firm.

"It was decided, now we understand, that Prigozhin's people will not be prosecuted. So they will obtain a place in Belarus where they would be able to continue their training. So all of this needed more detail, collaboration, and that's why I think that had to meet, in fact," said Stanovaya.

"I think it will also be important to see what happens at the meeting between Putin and Lukashenko in the near future, because they also have to discuss the rules of Wagner's presence in Belarus. So you just have to arrange this, and Putin wanted to finalize, let's say, the final agreements."

Stanovaya said that as details of the deal between Lukashenko and Prigozhin are unclear, it's not possible to say that the Wagner Group chief has violated the terms of the agreement by being in Russia, not Belarus.

But the Wagner Group may see its relocation to Belarus as temporary, she said.

"What is important, I think that they still may have some different interpretation of the deal, even if it may seem odd for both sides. But for Wagner, the very fact that they were sent to Belarus, it might be seen as something temporary."

In an attempt to downplay Prigozhin's uprising, Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, dismissed the mutiny as a mere scuffle.

"If anyone in the West has any doubts, then that's your problem," Lavrov told reporters at a press briefing a day after the Kremlin said Putin and Prigozhin had met. "Thank you for your concerns about our national interests, but there is no need."

"Russia has always emerged more resilient and stronger after any difficulties—and it is hard to call it anything more than difficulties," Lavrov added. "Moreover, we already feel that the process has started."

Prigozhin hasn't been officially sighted since he departed by car from Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia on June 24.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry by email for comment.

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Update 07/10/23, 10:03 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Tatiana Stanovaya.