MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. Members of the Russian government were at their workplaces during the attempted armed mutiny and carried out their duties seamlessly, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told a meeting with his vice premiers on Monday.
"Over these days the country faced yet another challenge; an attempt was made to destabilize the domestic situation within Russia. Members of the government were at their workplaces and acted in accordance with the president's guidance in a seamless, coordinated manner, maintaining the stability of the situation at all levels in order to prevent it from escalating and protecting citizens against all possible threats that may have arisen," Mishustin said.
The prime minister asked his vice premiers to report on how the government’s work had been organized in their respective areas of purview. "We were in constant touch with you [during the mutiny emergency]," he added.
Mishustin stressed the importance of ensuring Russia’s sovereignty and the safety of its citizenry given the latest developments and, as well, urged the unification of society. "Today, Russia is living through an important phase of its history. As the president noted, virtually the entire military, economic and information machinery of the West has been directed against us," he said.
"In essence, a struggle is now underway for the right [of an individual nation] to choose its own path based on its national interests for the benefit of its own people. The main thing in this situation is to ensure the sovereignty and independence of our country, the security and well-being of the citizenry. For this purpose, unifying society across the board is especially critical; we need to act together, as a team, and maintain the unity of all forces, rallying around the president, to make coordinated joint decisions in order to effectively address the tasks set forth by the head of state," Mishustin summed up.
On the evening of June 23, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), alleged on his Telegram channel that Wagner units were attacked, accusing Russia’s top brass of complicity in the situation. The Defense Ministry in turn termed the information as fake. PMC units, supported by Prigozhin, headed for Rostov-on-Don and then toward Moscow. The FSB opened a criminal case concerning a call for armed insurrection. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Wagner’s actions a betrayal in a televised address. Later, by agreement with Putin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko held talks with Prigozhin, following which the Wagner fighters stood down and retreated to their base camp. The Kremlin later clarified that criminal charges would be dropped against Prigozhin, who would "leave for Belarus." In addition, according to Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the authorities will not prosecute those Wagner group members who took part in the mutiny, "in light of their frontline services."