Putin-Prigozhin Meeting Reveals Kremlin's Lingering Wagner Problem

The mystery surrounding the mutiny against Vladimir Putin's authority has increased after the Kremlin confirmed the Russian president met Yevgeny Prigozhin and his commanders only days after denouncing them as traitors.

Uncertainty reigns over the deal that ended the rebellion on June 24 when Prigozhin's Wagner Group forces seized military facilities in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, before marching on the capital.

Negotiations reportedly involving Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, saw Prigozhin call off the rebellion, agree to exile in Belarus and a promise of no further legal action. But on June 27, the Kremlin said it did not know where Prigozhin was, while last week, Lukashenko said he believed the Wagner founder was not even in Belarus, but in Russia.

Adding to Moscow's mixed messaging, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Putin had in fact welcomed Prigozhin and 34 Wagner commanders at the Kremlin on June 29.

Wagner commanders underlined they were "staunch supporters of the head of state" and were "ready to continue fighting for the motherland," said Peskov.

Why the Kremlin revealed that such a meeting took place has added to speculation about the terms of Prigozhin's deal, the future of Wagner and why its chief has escaped punishment.

"I think it was a medieval-style court ritual with the defeated Wagner mutineers bending the knee before their monarch, explaining that their grievance was not against him, and begging for clemency," said former British defense attaché to Russia, John Foreman.

"In return it allows Putin to appear magnanimous, to be above politics, and to draw a line behind Prigozhin's antics," Foreman told Newsweek.

There is still much not known about the rebellion and its aftermath which Prigozhin said was aimed at Russia's military establishment due to the way they have conducted the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Wagner founder has directed his ire at Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who in January replaced Prigozhin's ally Sergei Surikovikin, as Russian commander in Ukraine.

Lukas Andriukaitis, who as a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), researches Russian disinformation and private military groups, said the biggest surprise was the Kremlin confirming that Putin had met Prigozhin.

"The situation demanded for Putin to be in on the meeting himself. He didn't have a whole lot of options because the situation was hard to predict," Andriukaitis told Newsweek, although, "the fact they're promoting it I find a little strange."

He said one theory lay in reports from media and open-source outlets regarding Putin's use of body doubles. "There's good reason to believe that his health is not the best," he said.

The Kremlin confirming the meeting shows that "he's on top of things, he's meeting people, he's solving everything in person is probably an idea from the Kremlin to keep up the myth that he's alright."

An investigation by DFRLab last month concluded that Prigozhin's video on June 23 condemning the Kremlin's justification for the war as false was "the most consequential debunking of the Kremlin's case for war by a high-profile Russian power player and Putin confidant."

Andriukaitis said it was notable that Prigozhin's key demands, such as the ousting of Shoigu and Gerasimov have not happened, nor have Wagner troops agreed to sign Russian MOD contracts. Last week and on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry released footage showing both men on post.

With its hold in Africa where it has access to minerals and resources, Prigozhin's Wagner Group is a key asset for Putin. This also means Putin may still have to do business with the man who posed the biggest challenge to his presidency.

"If Prigozhin was for some reason was pushed out of Ukraine, which is possible but unlikely, he would not be pushed out of other countries because there's no one to replace him and everyone understands that," said Andriukaitis.

"That's one of the reasons why they can't take him out easily—even if even if they wanted to."