Russia seeks calm after aborted mutiny, West sees cracks in Putin's power

Russia sought to restore calm on Monday (Jun 26) after an aborted mutiny by Wagner Group mercenaries over the weekend, while Western allies assessed how President Vladimir Putin might reassert authority and what it could mean for the war in Ukraine.

Ending their short-lived mutiny, Wagner fighters halted their rapid advance on Moscow, withdrew from the southern Russian city of Rostov and headed back to their bases late on Saturday under a deal that guaranteed their safety. Their commander, Yevgeny Prigozhin, would move to Belarus under the deal mediated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said he was cancelling a counter-terrorism regime imposed in the Russian capital on Saturday.

Sobyanin made the announcement in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging application on Monday. Russian media cited local Federal Security Service offices as saying similar action had been taken in the Voronezh and Moscow regions.

Separately, Russia's National Anti-terrorism Committee said the situation in the country was "stable".

Monday has been declared a non-working day in Moscow to allow time for things to settle, and there was little evidence of increased security in the Russian capital on Sunday evening.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, one of the main targets of Prigozhin's anger, visited Russian troops involved in the military operation in Ukraine, state-run RIA news agency reported on Monday.

But Putin, who has held power for more than two decades, had still to comment publicly since the de-escalation of one of the biggest challenges to his rule.

Wagner's aborted mutiny shows Moscow's war in Ukraine is splintering Russian power, the EU's top diplomat said on Monday, warning instability in the nuclear-armed power is "not a good thing".

"What has happened during this weekend shows that the war against Ukraine is cracking Russian power and affecting its political system," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said at a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers.

"We are certainly following closely what's happening but it's now the moment to continue supporting Ukraine more than ever, that what we will do," he said.

Borrell warned that "certainly it's not a good thing to see that a nuclear power like Russia can go into a phase of instability. It's also something that has to be taken into account".

He said "the most important conclusion is that the war against Ukraine launched by Putin and the monster that Putin created with Wagner, the monster is biting him".

"The monster is acting against its creator, the political system is showing the fragilities and the military power is cracking," Borrell said.

EU foreign ministers were scrambling to digest the fallout from the uprising at their regular meeting in Luxembourg.

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the events were "a domestic power struggle in Russia and we are not getting involved".

"We see the devastating consequences of the Russian war of aggression, also on the power system of Putin," she said.

"We see that more and more Russia's leadership is striking back at itself."

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said the tensions showed the "fractures and faultlines" in the Russian system, but the EU was remaining "cautious" and did not want to be seen to interfere.

Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis urged the West not to be "distracted" and to focus on bolstering support for Ukraine.

"We don't need to think about changing the regime in Russia and the need to plan it; Russians are completely capable of doing that on their own," he said.

Confusion over the weekend's extraordinary events has left governments, both friendly and hostile to Moscow, groping for answers to what could happen next in a country that has the world's largest nuclear arsenal.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested the turmoil could take months to play out.

"We've seen more cracks emerge in the Russian facade," Blinken told NBC's "Meet the Press" programme on Sunday.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko held talks in Beijing on "international" issues on Sunday. It was unclear if his visit to his country's strongest ally was precipitated by the Wagner mutiny.

"The Chinese side expressed support for the efforts of the leadership of the Russian Federation to stabilise the situation in the country in connection with the events of Jun 24 and confirmed its interest in strengthening the cohesion and further prosperity of Russia," the Russian foreign ministry said.

Beijing's response was characteristically measured. China's foreign ministry issued a statement vouching support for Russia's efforts to maintain national stability and referring to the recent tensions in the country as Russia's "internal affairs".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the events in Russia in separate phone calls with US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Biden and Trudeau both expressed their ongoing support of Ukraine as it pursues a counteroffensive to recover territory seized by Russia, according to official statements.

"The world must put pressure on Russia until international order is restored," Zelenskyy said on Twitter.

Putin said he was giving top priority to the conflict in Ukraine in excerpts from an interview aired by state television on Sunday that appeared to have been recorded before the mutiny.

State television said Putin would attend a meeting of Russia's Security Council this coming week, without elaborating, and Belarus' Belta news agency said Putin and Lukashenko spoke again on Sunday, after at least two calls on Saturday.

In a televised address during Saturday's drama, Putin said the rebellion put Russia's very existence under threat, vowing to punish those behind the revolt and drawing parallels with the chaos of 1917 that had led to the Bolshevik revolution.

"The myth of the unity of Putin's Russia is over ... It's the inevitable outcome when you support and finance a legion of mercenaries," Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was quoted as saying by Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.

PRIGOZHIN'S WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN

Under the deal, brokered late on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a criminal case opened against Prigozhin for armed mutiny would be dropped, Prigozhin would move to Belarus, and Wagner fighters who rallied to his cause would face no action, in recognition of their previous service to Russia.

Prigozhin, 62, was seen leaving the district military headquarters in Rostov late on Saturday in a sport utility vehicle. His whereabouts since were not known.

A former Putin ally and ex-convict whose forces have fought the bloodiest battles of the 16-month war in Ukraine, Prigozhin said his decision to advance on Moscow was intended to remove corrupt and incompetent Russian commanders he blames for botching the war.

This month, Prigozhin defied orders to place his troops under Defence Ministry command. He launched the rebellion on Friday after alleging the military had killed some of his men in an air strike. The Defence Ministry denied this.

Wagner, whose men in Ukraine include thousands of ex-prisoners recruited from Russian jails, has grown into a sprawling international business with mining interests and fighters in Africa and the Middle East.

Serhiy Nayev, commander of Ukraine's Joint Forces responded to speculative reports that Wagner fighters could be moved to Belarus to attack Ukraine from the north.

"If this happens and the enemy tries to cross the state border, it will be nothing but a suicide for them,” Nayev said in a post on the military's Telegram account.