Wagner uprising reveals cracks in Putin's authority, says US

A day after renegade Wagner mercenaries nearly sparked a civil war in Russia, the US’s top diplomat said yesterday that the uprising showed “real cracks” in Vladimir Putin’s regime, possibly offering Ukraine a crucial advantage as it launches a summer offensive

- Andrew Roth ,  Julian Borger

Antony Blinken , the secretary of state, said the historic upheaval triggered by the aborted advance on Moscow by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenaries on Saturday was far from over. By last night nothing had been heard from Prigozhin or Putin since they came to a last-minute agreement on Saturday to avert clashes between mercenaries and regular Russian troops near Moscow.

“This is an unfolding story and I think we’re in the midst of a moving picture,” Blinken told the CBS News programme, Face the Nation. “We haven’t seen the last act.”

The rebellion, fuelled by anger at how the Kremlin has led the invasion and occupation of Ukraine, represented the most direct threat to Putin’s grip on power since he first became president 23 years ago.

It was unclear yesterday whether Russia’s immediate crisis had passed, let alone what implications it had for the country’s longer term stability. Wagner troops abandoned the positions they had held in the city of Rostov-on-Don and near Moscow, while Russian officials claimed to have dropped criminal charges against Prigozhin and reopened Wagner recruiting centres.

Russian military insiders eagerly discussed rumours of an impending shake-up at the ministry of defence, one of the main demands issued by Prigozhin during his uprising.

Yet the Kremlin appeared keen to slow down developments, saying Putin had no more plans to address the nation and that the invasion of Ukraine would continue as planned.

Other top officials and propagandists also remained quiet, leaving an information vacuum that has been filled with rumours about the deal hammered out with Prigozhin, and whether the Kremlin could seek revenge once the immediate threat to Putin's power had receded.