Global Courant
Russia’s defense minister has made his first public appearance since this weekend’s dramatic armed uprising that sought to oust him from power and become the biggest challenge facing President Vladimir Putin in more than 20 years of rule.
Sergei Shoigu was shown visiting troops involved in the fighting in Ukraine in a video released by his ministry early Monday. It was not immediately clear where or when the video was taken, but its release was seen as a deliberate signal from the Kremlin as rumors circulated about the future of the country’s military leaders in the aftermath of the crisis.
Shoigu was the first top Russian official to be publicly displayed since an apparent deal ended the short-lived uprising — a stunning escalation of a long-running feud between Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Kremlin chief executive. There was still no sign of Putin or the mercenary leader launching the sudden challenge to his authority.
Shoigu, right, in what appears to be a military plane in images released Monday. Russian Ministry of Defense / AFP – Getty Images
The staggering nature of the armed insurrection and its abrupt end left many in Russia, the West and beyond with questions.
The future of the Wagner chief and his rebels – who captured an important city and came within some 200 kilometers of Moscow before returning – was uncertain. Putin’s regime appeared weakened despite announcing a deal to exile Prigozhin in Belarus and restore order just hours after branding him a traitor. And the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine faced new complications, though it was unclear how crucial the crisis within Russia might prove on the battlefield.
Footage released Monday and broadcast on Russian state media showed Shoigu traveling in a plane and attending a meeting with other military officials.
The apparent attempt to put things in order followed a mutiny that left Putin’s rule of strongmen in unprecedented uncertainty.
The Russian leader has not appeared – apart from a televised address to the nation Saturday in which he compared the situation to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and called for the mercenaries to be “neutralised”.
Likewise, there was no sign of the man at the center of the drama, Prigozhin.
Wagner has been responsible for some of Russia’s few victories in Ukraine, but Prigozhin has become increasingly hostile to his own country’s military. Blaming Shoigu and other top executives for ruining the war, he announced late Friday that his troops would leave Ukraine to return home and effectively attempt to oust the defense minister.
Shoigu at an undisclosed location, in footage released Monday. Russian Ministry of Defense Press Service / AP
That soon turned into a head-to-head confrontation with Moscow, as Prigozhin and his men charged at Moscow after Putin denounced the move as a “stab in the back”.
Then suddenly they returned, the product of an alleged deal with the Kremlin that would see Prigozhin leave for Belarus and have charges against his fighters – whom Putin had accused of treason hours earlier – be dropped.
Filmed late Saturday, Prigozhin left Rostov-on-Don, the southern Russian city where his men had captured strategic buildings, to the cheers of the crowd. But that was the last time he was seen in public and he has not confirmed any deal.
Appointed Minister of Defense in 2012, Shoigu, 68, is not a professional soldier but is one of Putin’s closest allies and is known as the Russian leader’s loyal “adjutant”.
However, Putin has not publicly shielded Shoigu or Chief of General Staff General Valery Gerasimov from Prigozhin’s sharp criticism.
The uprising leaves many wondering what the future of both men holds as their boss rises to the challenge of restoring his authority.
