Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he had “no doubts” about Russian support during Wagner’s armed rebellion last week, which sparked the country’s worst crisis since he came to power more than 20 years ago.
“I had no doubts about the reaction (of the people) in Dagestan and throughout the country,” he said in an interview with the head of this republic in southern Russia, according to an excerpt broadcast by Russian state television.
The authority of the Kremlin questioned
Moments earlier, Sergei Melikov, head of the Republic of Dagestan, had assured the Russian leader that “there is not a single person in Dagestan who would not have supported the decisions of the leadership of the Russian Federation, which were adopted on June 24.” , the day of the uprising.
The Wagner armed rebellion, led at the end of last week by its leader Evgeny Prigojine, has strongly shaken Russian power, in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine where the Russian army is facing a counteroffensive by troops from Kiev.
For several hours, fighters from the paramilitary group notably occupied a Russian army headquarters in Rostov and other military buildings, and marched several hundred kilometers towards the capital Moscow in a spectacular coup.
Yevgeny Prigojine has since asserted that his uprising was not aimed at overthrowing Russian power but rather to save Wagner, yet the blow to the Russian president’s image is significant.
Source: BFM TV
