MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. Russia holds serious doubts about the sanity and fitness of many Western leaders, who understand that their voters are suffering, yet continue to arm Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at an online briefing on Friday.
"We don't have to explain anything to anyone, or give any assurances. We are acting transparently, [Russian] President [Vladimir Putin] has spoken on this issue, and all the political forces in our country have spoken. If someone in the West has doubts, that's their problem," the top Russian diplomat said in response to a request that he give assurances to the world that Russia would not descend into turmoil after the attempted armed mutiny on June 24.
"We ourselves have serious doubts about the sanity of many Western leaders who publicly and officially say that they understand that their voters are suffering, but they nevertheless are obligated to do this (arm Ukraine - TASS) for the sake of a Ukrainian victory over Russia," Lavrov pointed out. "Can this really be called sane?"
Lavrov expressed doubt that such an inflexible position taken by the West actually reflected the national interests of Western countries.
Attempted armed mutiny on June 24
On the evening of June 23, several audio recordings were posted on the Telegram channel of Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. In particular, he claimed that his units had come under attack, blaming the Russian military. In turn, the Russian Defense Ministry slammed the Wagner boss’ allegations of a strike on the PMC’s "rear camps" as fake news. The PMC units that supported Prigozhin headed to Rostov-on-Don and then turned toward Moscow. The Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a criminal probe into calls for armed mutiny. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a televised address to the nation on June 24, described the Wagner group’s actions as armed mutiny and a betrayal, vowing to take tough measures against the mutineers.
Later on that day, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in coordination with Putin, held talks with Prigozhin, as a result of which the Wagner troops stood down, turned around and returned to their base camps. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the criminal case against the Wagner chief would be dropped, while Prigozhin himself would go to Belarus. In addition, the Russian authorities pledged not to prosecute those Wagner PMC fighters who took part in the attempted mutiny in light of their "frontline achievements." On June 27, the FSB press office reported that the criminal case had been dropped.