MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. Many heads of foreign diplomatic missions called to express solidarity with Moscow in the wake of the events of June 24, but some asked that Moscow refrain from making public mention of their calls, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.
"Russian President [Vladimir] Putin received numerous telephone calls on that day from colleagues who wished to express their solidarity and support, and their confidence that the situation would be [brought] under control and would be [brought] back within the constitutional framework. And, in fact, this is exactly how things turned out," Lavrov said in an interview with Russia’s RT television.
"I was engaged as well in a number of telephone conversations at the initiative of my foreign colleagues," Lavrov continued.
"Many of them expressed the same thoughts about solidarity and confidence that we [Russia] would not allow any attempts aimed at undermining state sovereignty and ruining the progress of the special military operation to succeed, but then asked me not to make any public comments about the calls they made. This is what we are trying to do as we respect their requests [for confidentiality]," Lavrov added.
Asked how Moscow assessed the role of Minsk in resolving the situation over the past weekend, Lavrov stressed that all assessments "have already been articulated personally by [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko, and, [moreover, Russian Presidential Spokesman] Dmitry Peskov has explained repeatedly and in detail in telephone conversations with Putin [Lukashenko’s] desire ‘to try to resolve this situation peacefully, and avoid major bloodshed, which would have inevitably happened if the [Wagner PMC] units had continued moving towards Moscow."
"These proposals were backed by President Putin and you all know the result, which was announced yesterday by the Kremlin’s spokesman," Lavrov added.
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.
Wagner 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, 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 Peskov, the authorities will not prosecute those Wagner group members who took part in the mutiny, "in light of their frontline services.".