Putin Snubs Own Military in First State Awards Ceremony Since Wagner Mutiny

No serving members of the military were among recipients of Russia's first state awards since the Wagner Group rebellion against President Vladimir Putin's authority, it has been reported.

During the ceremony of the country's highest state awards at the Kremlin Palace on Wednesday, Putin said that orders and medals would be given to those "who selflessly defended the constitutional order of Russia on June 24," the day of the mutiny.

Regarding the mutiny by the Wagner Group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin in which they seized military facilities in Rostov-on-Don and marched on Moscow, Putin said "everyone in his post showed courage and did everything possible to fulfil his official and civic duty."

While Putin said that the awards would also honor participants in the "special military operation", the Kremlin term for his invasion of Ukraine, independent Russian-language news outlet Agentstvo reported it was significant that no recipients on Wednesday were serving members of the military.

In addition, "none were military pilots who died during the mutiny," the outlet said, adding that "so far, the Russian authorities have not presented state awards to the military for resisting the rebellion."

Agentstvo also noted reports that there has been a post-mutiny purge of the army amid an investigation it was involved. Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces Sergei Surovikin, a Prigozhin ally, has not appeared in public since June.

It was reported last month that in the aftermath of the rebellion, Putin reinforced his National Guard with Grom special-forces unit normally tasked with drug control, signaling his concerns about the loyalty of his security services and military officers.

Putin did grant two posthumous awards to commanders of the 123rd motorized rifle brigade and assault group, Colonel Denis Ivanov and Captain Roman Vorobyov, according to a transcript and video of the event on the Kremlin website.

Ukrainian reports said Ivanov was killed last month either due to a kamikaze drone or a missile strike on a car he had been traveling in on a base in Ukraine's Luhansk oblast.

However, Agentstvo said it was notable that those receiving the awards connected to the mutiny were only from Russia's National Guard and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Bravery medals were given to two internal affairs officials—one from the Lipetsk region, the other from the Voronezh region, where the Wagner columns passed through on June 24.

Medals for courage were also presented to two members of Russia's National Guard, Rosgvardiya, the internal military force independent of the army which reports directly to Putin.

The other recipient was National Guard Colonel Dmitry Makarov, who is the commander of the Rostov 685th separate mixed aviation regiment.

Agentstvo said this indicated that on June 24 as Wagner rolled towards Moscow, the defense ministry and the National Guard were involved in repelling the group "and the clashes were not only in the air, but also on the ground."

️Russian authorities had previously said Wagner had destroyed only military aircraft. These included a Ka-52 helicopter and an Il-22M aircraft, along with 12 crew members. Open-source intelligence showed that other aircraft were shot down, including several Mi-8 helicopters.

Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment.