Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a defiant televised address, saying he had deliberately let a 24-hour mutiny by the Wagner militia go on as long as it did to avoid bloodshed, and that it had reinforced national unity.
The statement, his first on the issue since he spoke on Saturday promising to crush the mutiny, appeared intended to draw a line under an event that numerous Western leaders saw as exposing Putin's vulnerability since invading Ukraine 16 months ago.
"From the very beginning of the events, steps were taken on my direct instruction to avoid serious bloodshed," Putin said on Monday.
"Time was needed, among other things, to give those who had made a mistake a chance to come to their senses, to realise that their actions were firmly rejected by society, and that the adventure in which they had been involved had tragic and destructive consequences for Russia and for our state."
Putin made no mention of Prigozhin, who had demanded that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov come to Rostov to speak to him. Prigozhin called for both of them to be dismissed.
Nor did Putin mention any planned personnel changes at the Defence Ministry, although around 11pm (Moscow time) he was shown on TV addressing a meeting of heads of his security departments, including Shoigu.
"The organisers of the mutiny, having betrayed their country, their people, also betrayed those whom they dragged into the crime. They lied to them, they pushed them to death: under fire, to shoot their own."
Putin thanked Wagner fighters and commanders who had stood down from the mutiny to avoid what he called "fratricidal bloodshed", and said the vast majority of Wagner's members were patriots.
He said those who decided not to sign contracts with the army under a Defence Ministry order could either relocate to Belarus or simply return to their families.
Putin said all levels of society had taken "a firm, unambiguous position in support of the constitutional order".
"Everyone was united and rallied by the main thing," he said, "responsibility for the fate of the Fatherland."
Russia says it is carrying out a "special military operation" in Ukraine to remove what it calls a potential threat against its own security from the Western-leaning government in Kyiv.
Ukraine and the West described the February 2022 invasion as an unprovoked land grab.
PRIGOZHIN WHEREABOUTS UNCLEAR
Prigozhin, a former Putin ally and ex-convict whose forces have fought the bloodiest battles of the 16-month war in Ukraine, defied orders this month to place his troops under Defence Ministry command.
On Monday, the 62-year-old said he never intended to overthrow the government and gave few clues about his own fate, including his whereabouts, or the deal under which he halted a move toward Moscow.
Last seen on Saturday night smiling and high-fiving bystanders from the back of an SUV as he withdrew from a city occupied by his men, Prigozhin said his fighters had halted their campaign in order to avert bloodshed.
"We went as a demonstration of protest, not to overthrow the government of the country," he said in an 11-minute audio message.
He said his goal was to prevent his Wagner militia's destruction, and to force accountability on commanders who had botched Russia's military campaign in Ukraine. He said his fighters did not engage in ground combat in Russia, and regretted having to shoot down Russian aircraft that fired on them.
"We halted at the moment when the first assault unit deployed its artillery (near Moscow), conducted reconnaissance and realised that a lot of blood would be spilled."
He made no direct reference to his own whereabouts, or provide further details of the mysterious agreement that had brought a halt to his mutiny.
On Saturday Prigozhin had said he was leaving for Belarus under a deal brokered by its president, Alexander Lukashenko. In Monday's remarks he said Lukashenko had offered to let Wagner operate under a legal framework, but did not elaborate.
The White House said it could not confirm whether the Wagner chief was in Belarus.
NOTHING TO DO WITH IT - BIDEN
Prigozhin shocked the world by leading Saturday's armed revolt, only to abruptly call it off as his fighters approached the capital having shot down several aircraft but meeting no resistance on the ground during a dash of nearly 800km.
Russia's three main news agencies reported on Monday that a criminal case against Prigozhin had not been closed, an apparent reversal of an offer of immunity publicised as part of the deal that persuaded him to stand down.
United States President Joe Biden called the mutiny "part of a struggle within the Russian system". He discussed it in a conference call with key allies who agreed it was vital not to let Putin blame it on the West or NATO, he said.
"We made it clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it," Biden said.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said it was "a new thing to see President Putin's leadership directly challenged. It is a new thing to see Yevgeny Prigozhin directly questioning the rationale for this war and calling out that the war has been conducted essentially based on a lie."
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said U.S. policy did not seek to change the government in Russia.
PROJECTING CALM
Russian officials sought to project calm. Russia's national Anti-Terrorism Committee said the situation in the country was stable. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who had told residents to stay indoors on Saturday as the mutinous fighters raced to within a few hundred kilometres of the capital, said he was cancelling a counter-terrorism security regime.
Foreign governments, both friendly and hostile to Russia, were left groping for answers to what had happened behind the scenes and what could come next.
Russia's ally China, where a senior Russian diplomat visited on Sunday, said it supported Moscow in maintaining national stability.
Ukraine and its Western allies said the turmoil revealed cracks in Putin's Russia.
"The political system is showing fragilities, and the military power is cracking," European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Luxembourg as he arrived for a meeting with ministers from across the 27-member bloc.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia's intelligence services were investigating whether Western spy agencies played a role in the aborted mutiny, the TASS news agency reported. It cited no evidence.
Ukraine hopes the chaos caused by the mutiny will undermine Russia's defences as Kyiv presses on with a counteroffensive, begun earlier this month to recapture territory which Moscow claims to have annexed.
On Monday, Ukraine said its forces had recaptured the small southern village of Rivnopil, the ninth village it says it has retaken since launching the counteroffensive, and first in more than a week. Russia said it had foiled Ukrainian attacks.
