Putin said that the military managed to stop the civil war

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin in front of the military and law enforcement officers who ensured order during the armed rebellion of the Wagner PMC on June 24.

The event brought together, as the president himself noted, the military personnel of the Armed Forces (AF) of Russia, employees of the National Guard, the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSO, who, in a “difficult hour”, stood “on the path of unrest, the result of which would inevitably be chaos.”

“You defended the constitutional order, the life, security and freedom of our citizens, saved our homeland from upheavals, and actually stopped the civil war. In a difficult situation, you acted clearly, harmoniously, by deed you proved your loyalty to the people of Russia and the military oath. We showed responsibility for the fate of the Motherland and its future,” Putin said in an address to the security forces.

The President noted that units of the Ministry of Defense, the National Guard, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and special services during the events of June 24 ensured the reliable operation of “the most important control centers”, strategic facilities, as well as the security of border regions. “The strength of the rear of our Armed Forces, all the combat formations that continued to heroically fight at the front at that time,” he added, stressing that to resolve the situation, it was not necessary to remove units from the front line.

During his speech, Putin also said that during the events of June 24, Russian pilots were killed (the president did not name the number of dead). “They did not flinch and honorably fulfilled the order and their military duty,” the head of state said, offering to honor their memory with a minute of silence.

The people involved in the rebellion saw, Putin stressed, that “the army, the people are not with them.” The rapid deployment of power units made it possible to quickly stop the “extremely dangerous development of the situation in the country” and prevent civilian casualties.

At the end of his speech, the head of state thanked the personnel of the Russian Armed Forces, law enforcement agencies and special services for their service, courage, valor and loyalty to the people of Russia.

On the evening of June 26, Putin addressed the nation, thanking the Russians for “restraint, solidarity and patriotism.” According to Putin, civic solidarity has shown that “any blackmail, any attempt to create internal turmoil is doomed to failure.” The President stressed that public organizations, religious denominations, leading political parties, “virtually the entire Russian society” came out in support of the constitutional order.

The President emphasized in his address that the armed rebellion would have been suppressed in any case, and since the vast majority of the fighters and commanders of the Wagner group are also patriots, from the very beginning of the events, on the direct instructions of the President, “steps were taken to avoid big bloodshed.”

An attempt at a military mutiny by PMC “Wagner” was made on the night of June 24. On the evening of June 23, Prigozhin published reports of a strike on the rear camps of the company and blamed the army for this. The Ministry of Defense called the information false and described it as a provocation. Already in the morning, Wagner controlled Rostov-on-Don, capturing all the military facilities of the city, after which the PMC began to advance towards Moscow. Later, the FSB of Russia opened a criminal case against Prigozhin under the article on armed rebellion.

On the evening of June 24, Prigozhin announced the stoppage of traffic to Moscow. The Kremlin reported that Lukashenka participated in negotiations to resolve the situation with the founder of the PMC. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov also said that as a result, an agreement was reached that the criminal case initiated against Prigozhin would be terminated, and he would move to Belarus.