A home safety disaster that threatened the federal government of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia appeared to ease late Saturday, when a mercenary tycoon, whose forces had seized essential navy and civilian services in southern Russia and started an armed march on Moscow, abruptly stood down after reducing a deal mediated by Belarus that allowed him and his fighters to flee prosecution.
The mercenary chief, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, who had overtly seized management of the Southern Navy District headquarters within the Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don and stationed his fighters and tanks on the streets, demanding a change to the Russian navy management, mentioned his Wagner personal navy firm had made it inside 200 kilometers (about 124 miles) of Moscow, the capital, with out injuring any of its fighters.
However he mentioned the group had reached the purpose the place Russian blood was about to be spilled “on one aspect.” And out of a way of duty, he would flip his forces round and ship them again to their discipline camps.
Many questions remained unanswered because the day resulted in Moscow, however the outlines of a deal Mr. Prigozhin had negotiated with the chief of Belarus, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, serving as a mediator, started to come back into focus.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, informed reporters that underneath the settlement, Mr. Prigozhin would go to Belarus and the felony case opened in opposition to him for organizing an armed riot can be dropped.
The Wagner fighters who didn’t take part within the rebellion can be given the choice of signing Russian Protection Ministry contracts, Mr. Peskov mentioned, and the remainder would keep away from prosecution, contemplating their “heroic deeds on the entrance.”
“There was the next aim — to keep away from bloodshed, to keep away from an inside confrontation, to keep away from clashes with unpredictable penalties,” Mr. Peskov mentioned. “It was within the identify of those objectives that Lukashenko’s mediation efforts had been realized, and President Putin made the corresponding selections.”
As for Mr. Prigozhin’s calls for to finish the “shame” of the Russian navy management, the Kremlin spokesman mentioned such personnel selections had been solely the area of the Russian commander in chief and scarcely may very well be topic to such negotiations.
The announcement by the Kremlin capped a calamitous day that started with Mr. Prigozhin’s flaunting his brazen seizure of Russia’s Southern Navy District headquarters and continued with an emergency televised nationwide handle by Mr. Putin, wherein the Russian chief vowed to place down the armed mutiny and derided the Wagner fighters as traitors stabbing the motherland within the again.
Russia, Mr. Putin warned, risked spiraling anew right into a tragedy akin to the Russian Civil Struggle from 1917 to 1922, when “Russians had been killing Russians and brothers had been killing brothers.”
“We is not going to permit this to occur once more,” he mentioned. “We are going to shield our folks and our statehood from any threats, together with from inside betrayal.”
The Russian chief, who didn’t point out Mr. Prigozhin by identify in his recorded remarks, mentioned “inflated ambitions and private pursuits” had led to treason, and he vowed the harshest punishment for anybody who had “consciously chosen the trail of betrayal.”
He admitted that the state of affairs in Rostov-on-Don, a metropolis of about 1.1 million folks, was troublesome, saying: “In impact, the work of civil and navy establishments has been blocked.”
The dramatic strikes by Wagner — which for years did Mr. Putin’s shadowy geopolitical bidding in nations overseas and suffered profound losses on the battlefield in Ukraine earlier than turning its sights on Russia itself — represented the largest home blowback Mr. Putin had confronted since launching his warfare in Ukraine final 12 months.
For a short second, the group of fighters appeared to pose one of many gravest threats to the Russian president’s management since he took energy greater than 23 years in the past, and confirmed the danger posed by armed formations working outdoors of presidency management.
The pinnacle-spinning sequence of occasions that performed out in lower than 24 hours plunged a nation already struggling to wage the warfare in Ukraine right into a full-blown home disaster, pitting a Russian president in search of to squelch home dissent in opposition to a former convict and caterer turned mercenary boss, who as soon as helped a beleaguered Russia on the battlefield however ultimately turned a political legal responsibility for the Kremlin.
In the midst of the day on Saturday, with Mr. Prigozhin apparently answerable for central Rostov-on-Don and initially refusing to again down, there gave the impression to be comparatively few methods out of the disaster that will not contain clashes inside Russia or threat a major lack of lives.
Regional officers alongside the main M-4 freeway linking Rostov-on-Don to Moscow, about 600 miles north, had mentioned that convoys of navy gear had been barreling north on the freeway and urged native residents to remain away.
Movies verified by The New York Occasions confirmed indicators of lively combating alongside the freeway south of town of Voronezh, together with helicopters and a destroyed truck alongside the street, after experiences that Wagner fighters had entered the Voronezh area, which is midway between Rostov and Moscow.
“We’re blockading town of Rostov and going to Moscow,” Mr. Prigozhin had mentioned early within the day within the courtyard of the navy headquarters.
The Russian Protection Ministry, addressing the Wagner fighters instantly in an announcement, informed them that they had been tricked into Mr. Prigozhin’s “felony journey” and can be assured security in the event that they contacted the authorities.
Maybe essentially the most surprising scene of the day got here when footage surfaced of Mr. Prigozhin answerable for the Southern Navy District headquarters, the place he appeared to have two prime Russian navy officers surrounded by Wagner guards.
Within the video, Mr. Prigozhin demanded to satisfy with Russia’s prime navy officer, Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, and the nation’s protection minister, Sergei Okay. Shoigu, to finish what he described as a “shame.”
“We got here right here,” Mr. Prigozhin says. “We would like the chief of the final workers and Shoigu. As long as they aren’t right here, we can be staying right here.”
All through the video, Mr. Prigozhin sat casually between the 2 uncomfortable Russian officers — a deputy protection minister, Col. Gen. Yunus-bek Yevkurov, and a deputy navy intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev — as he criticized the Russian navy’s poor management in Ukraine.
Normal Yevkurov requested Mr. Prigozhin to let the common troopers from the navy district’s headquarters depart. “Completely not,” Mr. Prigozhin replied, earlier than berating the final for killing fighters by “throwing them right into a meat grinder” in Ukraine “with none ammunition, any thought or any plans.”
Mr. Prigozhin berated the final for exhibiting disrespect by referring to him utilizing the casual “you” in Russian, and mentioned if the Russian navy had been in a position to discuss together with his group in a traditional tone, he wouldn’t have needed to come
Normal Yevkurov later requested whether or not Mr. Prigozhin noticed the actions he was taking as justified. “They’re completely appropriate,” Mr. Prigozhin mentioned. “We’re saving Russia.”
By the top of the day, Wagner fighters had maneuvered a tank out from the place that they had parked it between the gates of the Rostov-on-Don circus, and Mr. Prigozhin was photographed waving goodbye out the window of a automobile.
The state of affairs created by Mr. Prigozhin initially appeared like a dramatic denouement for a person who spent years in jail through the Soviet period however rose to riches after making inroads with Mr. Putin in St. Petersburg within the Nineties and profitable authorities catering contracts.
Final 12 months, he stepped into the highlight as Wagner took on a better function in prosecuting Moscow’s struggling warfare effort in Ukraine, ultimately wresting management of the Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut amid staggering losses.
The state of affairs led to a harsh rivalry between Mr. Prigozhin and prime Russian navy leaders that burst out into the open as he launched expletive-laden public movies assailing them for incompetence.
The infighting between Mr. Prigozhin’s pressure and the Russian navy for months appeared untenable, with the expectation that Mr. Putin would finally take motion to curb the disunity. However then, nothing occurred.
In audio recordings launched late Friday night time, Mr. Prigozhin instructed that Moscow had lastly sided with the Russian navy and accused the Protection Ministry of launching an assault in opposition to a Wagner camp in Ukraine, an accusation that the Russian authorities publicly rebutted.
A Telegram channel affiliated with Wagner on Saturday accused Mr. Putin of triggering the civil unrest himself by refusing to ship “one or two degenerates into retirement” and siding with them over “essentially the most battle-ready unit in Russia.”
After Mr. Prigozhin backed down, the Telegram channel, known as APWagner, erupted in anger: “I’m tearing up my contract.”
How precisely Mr. Prigozhin had deliberate to outmuscle Russia’s sprawling safety companies wasn’t clear.
By late Saturday, no items inside the Russian navy or police appeared to have defected to Wagner, and no outstanding Russian officers had expressed open help for the mercenary group. High officers throughout Russia launched feedback supporting Mr. Putin, making the Wagner boss seem remoted.
The favored pro-war Russian blogger Mikhail Zvinchuk, who writes on Telegram underneath the identify Rybar, mentioned that whereas he wasn’t whitewashing Mr. Prigozhin’s actions, the mercenary boss “gave voice to all these issues and weak hyperlinks that it turned unacceptable to debate aloud.”
Mr. Zvinchuk famous that Mr. Putin not solely ignored Mr. Prigozhin in his remarks, but in addition didn’t point out the protection minister or the chief of the final workers, “which says rather a lot.”
Contemplating there gave the impression to be some type of settlement with Mr. Prigozhin, the query of whether or not there can be penalties for the Russian protection minister and prime navy officer remained, the blogger added.
Regardless of one of the crucial vital threats to Russian nationwide safety in years, neither had mentioned something all day.
Reporting was contributed by Anton Troianovski, Anatoly Kurmanaev, Valerie Hopkins and Neil MacFarquhar.
