Newsman: Wagner private military company chief Yevgeny Prigozhin met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin after his short-lived mutiny at the end of June, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
Putin held a meeting with more than 30 military commanders on June 29, and Prigozhin also attended, said Peskov during his daily call with the media.
Peskov was responding to a report in the French newspaper Liberation, which said Prigozhin had been to the Kremlin since his abortive mutiny.
“Indeed, the President held such a meeting. He invited 35 people, [including] all unit commanders and the leadership of the campaign, including Prigozhin himself.”
“This meeting took place in the Kremlin on June 29 and lasted for almost 3 hours. Its details are not known. The only thing we can say is that the President gave an assessment of the actions of the campaign at the front during the special military operation, as well as of the events of June 24,” Peskov said, referring latterly to the short-lived uprising during which Wagner troops marched towards Moscow.
“Putin listened to the explanations provided by the commanders and offered them further options for deployment and of further combat use,” added Peskov.
There has been widespread speculation about where the Wagner leader has been since the aborted mutiny on June 23-24.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered an agreement for him to move to Belarus, but said last week Prigozhin was not in the country.
Peskov said that on June 29 Prigozhin offered an “assessment” of Wagner’s actions on the battlefield in Ukraine and “of the events of June 24,” according to Russian state media. He said Putin “listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them options for further employment and further use in combat.”
The meeting lasted about three hours. According to Peskov, Prigozhin offered his unconditional support to Putin during their meeting.
