Serious faces and an unusually critical tone. Following the aborted rebellion of the Wagner group, Russian television was skeptical of Vladimir Putin’s reaction.
Host of a very popular program on the public channel Rossiya-1, Vladimir Soloviev did not seem to appreciate the leniency shown by the Russian president towards Evgeny Prigokhine, leader of the Wagner group.
“Listen carefully to what the president said through his spokesman Dmitry Peskov: ‘The heroes who made a mistake will not be prosecuted out of respect for what they have achieved.’ But there is an expression that says: ‘thank you for the yesterday, but realize it for today,'” he declared on Sunday night on this regularly purchased Kremlin-based show.
“A Ball to the Head”
On the set, Andrey Gurulyov, a Duma deputy, also pointed a finger at the Russian president’s lack of firmness. “I am a firm believer that in times of war traitors must be eliminated (…) Whatever the story they tell, a bullet to the head is the only salvation for Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin,” he launched.
The chosen one, however, quickly returned to a much more conciliatory tone with the master of the Kremlin. The next day, he praised Vladimir Putin’s “strength and wisdom” on the same channel, acknowledging that he had “lost his temper” on Vladimir Soloviev’s show.
No prosecution for Wagner
In a televised speech on Monday, Vladimir Putin offered Wagner’s fighters to sign a contract with the regular army, “return to their families and loved ones” or “go to Belarus”, an ally of the Russian regime where their boss Yevgeny Prigojine must go into exile, according to the Kremlin.
On Tuesday, the Russian authorities announced that they were dropping the charges against the paramilitary group. “It has been established” that the participants in the riot “have put an end to their actions aimed directly at committing a crime,” said the security services (FSB), quoted by Russian press agencies. Given these circumstances, “the drop of the prosecution was decided on June 27,” the FSB said.
Source: BFM TV
