Putin to the nation: "attempts to create internal disorder will fail"

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses a message to the nation, emphasizing the latest events, the fight against neo-Nazism, and thanking the Russians for their perseverance, solidarity and patriotism, noting that "any blackmail and uprising is doomed to failure." In opening his address to the nation, Vladimir Putin condemned what he called the "criminal actions" of those who carried out an "armed mutiny".

Putin thanked the Russians for "saving the nation" from the coup attempt (which he called "a revolt") by Evgeny Prighozin, whom the Kremlin head never named. Putin also thanked "those soldiers and commanders" of the Wagner brigade who "refused to fire on other Russians" inviting them to join the regular army. The revolt would have been crushed anyway, "but we wanted to avoid bloodshed".

"The Ukrainian neo-Nazis wanted just that, for Russian soldiers to kill other Russians, for our society to split, to suffocate in blood. Instead, all our military, our special services, managed to keep their loyalty to their country, they saved Russia from destruction".

Wagner militiamen can sign a contract to place themselves under the orders of the Defense Ministry, return to their families or take refuge in Belarus. "We know that the vast majority of Wagner fighters and commanders are patriots, they have been drawn into this adventure," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in statements to the nation, speaking of "heroes" who fought as such in Bakhmut.

"The rioters wanted our soldiers to kill each other, they wanted Kiev too." "The organizers of the uprising betrayed their comrades, this was what the Nazi enemies of Kiev wanted, they wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other and Russia to lose in the end."Putin has defined the action unleashed by Prighozin as a betrayal of "both the country" and the Wagner fighters themselves. The Kremlin leader claimed to have taken operational decisions that avoided "a bloodbath".Putin said he was "grateful to Belarusian President Lukashenko "for his contribution to resolving the situation" that had arisen with the rebellion of the founder of the Wagner group, Evgeny Prigozhin.