Putin’s two-faced tirades over the Wagner mutiny could still be his undoing

Claiming treachery one minute, then praising Wagner’s role in Ukraine the next, may have allowed the Russian leader to steer out of an immediate storm, writes Mary Dejevsky. But such mixed messages expose cracks in his authority that will be hard to repair

Russian president Vladimir Putin during his address honouring Russia’s armed forces outside the Kremlin (Sputnik/Reuters)

Russian president Vladimir Putin has addressed military officers in the Kremlin, in a televised ceremony that was clearly intended to demonstrate three things: that the mutiny at the weekend was over; that Russia’s armed forces were united; and that the president was in the Kremlin with his authority intact. While many will remain sceptical, more important is how convincing such a show will have been to Russians.

It’s worth revisiting some of what had unfolded in the previous 72 hours. At 10am Moscow time on Saturday, Putin made an unscheduled television broadcast breathing fire and slaughter against an armed mutiny in the south of the country and threatening severe punishment for the (unnamed) “traitors”. Ten hours later, it was announced that the chief mutineer, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had accepted a deal mediated by the president of Belarus, under the terms of which he agreed to go into exile in return for immunity from prosecution, while those of his mercenary force who did not follow him into exile were transferred to the command of the Russian armed forces.

At 10.10pm on Monday evening – a strange time to address the nation – Putin made another unscheduled broadcast that combined these positions, but still contained fury. The Russian president recognised Prigozhin’s Wagner group fighters as doughty heroes for their contribution to Russian victories in Ukraine, even as he condemned their leader as a threat to the state.