Kremlin reveals details of a meeting between Putin and Wagner, days after their rebellion

 On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with the head of the Wagner private military group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and commanders in the group to discuss the armed rebellion they attempted against senior military leaders.

News of the meeting was first reported in the French newspaper Liberation, which said that Prigozhin had met with Putin, the head of the National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, and the director of foreign intelligence, Sergei Naryshkin.

According to Peskov, the meeting took place on June 29, 5 days after the insurgency was nipped in the bud, and is widely believed to have posed the most serious challenge to Putin since he came to power on the last day of 1999.

Peskov told reporters that Putin had invited 35 people to attend the meeting, including Prigozhin and commanders of Wagner units, and that the meeting lasted 3 hours.

"All we can say is that the president offered his assessment of the (Wagner) group's performance on the front during the special military operation (in Ukraine), as well as his assessment of the events of June 24 (the day of the insurrection)," he added.

He also indicated that the Russian president listened to the leaders' explanations of what happened and offered them more options for action and fighting.

Peskov made his remarks in response to an article published by the French newspaper "Liberation" on Friday, in which it was confirmed by Western intelligence sources that Prigozhin is being held in the Kremlin, where he was invited with the main leaders of Wagner.

Prigozhin has not made any public statements since June 26.

The short rebellion led by Prigozhin, during which Wagner's fighters took control of the city of Rostov in southern Russia and one of the army's headquarters, was defused through an agreement brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Putin likened the events to the turmoil that swept Russia in the period leading up to the 1917 revolution and thanked the army and security services for averting chaos and civil war.

Prigozhin said the revolt was not aimed at overthrowing the government but rather at "prosecuting" army chiefs and senior defense officials for what he said were blunders and unprofessional behavior in Ukraine.

Under the agreement that ended the rebellion, Prigozhin was supposed to move to Belarus. Still, Lukashenko said last week that Prigozhin had returned to Russia and that Wagner fighters had not yet accepted the offer to move to Belarus, which raises questions about the implementation of the agreement.

Source: French + Reuters