MOSCOW made an effort on Monday to portray a return to business as usual after a weekend mutiny by mercenary troops threatened to undermine Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s grip on power.
Putin did not personally address the crisis, but made a video speech to a youth forum dubbed the “Engineers of the future” and praised industry for overcoming “severe external challenges”.
The Kremlin said that Putin had spoken to Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi by phone and had received Tehran’s “full support” in connection with the mutiny.
Putin also received a call from Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who also expressed his backing, the Kremlin said.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, one of the main targets of Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin’s revolt, appeared in more pre-recorded footage on state television, apparently visiting troops in Ukraine.
Officials in Moscow and in the Voronezh region south of the capital lifted “anti-terrorist” emergency security measures imposed to protect the capital from rebel assault.
Prigozhin himself was last seen on Saturday leaving the southern city of Rostov-on-Don in an armed Wagner convoy, and his location and that of the bulk of his as yet still mobilised and equipped private army was unclear.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin proclaimed the situation in the city “stable”, and thanked Muscovites for their “calm and understanding” during the crisis.
On Saturday, with Wagner columns bearing down on the capital and clashing with regular forces in Voronezh, bordering Ukraine, a “counter-terrorist” regime had been ordered.
