Russian President Vladimir Putin told his nation that he had ordered that bloodshed be avoided during a weekend armed rebellion and offered Wagner fighters to join the army or leave the country after their mutiny.
He spoke as Moscow appeared to show a business-as-usual approach in the aftermath of the dramatic rebellion staged by Wagner that rattled his more than two-decade rule.
“From the start of the events, on my orders steps were taken to avoid large-scale bloodshed,” Putin said thanking Russians for their “endurance and unity, and patriotism”.
He said that the West and Ukraine wanted Russian soldiers to shoot at each other, two days after he warned against civil war:
“It was precisely this fratricide that Russia’s enemies wanted: both the neo-Nazis in Kyiv and their Western patrons and all sorts of national traitors. They wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other.”
The longtime Russian leader warned attempts to sow unrest in Russia,…