The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said the failed Wagner mutiny has weakened Vladimir Putin’s authority, as the Russian president sought to repair the damage to his standing by meeting military staff at the Kremlin and greeting crowds on a rare public walkabout.
Speaking in a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with the broadcaster ARD, Scholz said: “I do believe he is weakened as this shows that the autocratic power structures have cracks in them and he is not as firmly in the saddle as he always asserts.”
Scholz said he did not want to join in speculation about how long Putin might remain in office, saying the west’s aim in supporting Ukraine was to help it defend itself, not to bring about regime change.
The same day, Putin arrived in the remote southern region of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea, 1,200 miles (2,000km) from Moscow and took a public tour, stopping to kiss fans, pose for selfies and shake hands with cheering crowds. He flew to the city of Derbent in the mostly Muslim region to mark the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha and visit an ancient citadel and historic mosque.
It was an unusual move for a secretive president who one senior security official once described as “pathologically afraid for his life”, requiring his staff to undergo a two-week quarantine during the height of the Covid pandemic. The length of the tables Putin used when meeting foreign leaders last year was widely seen as both a power play and a way to socially distance.
The Russian president has given a series of public addresses this week in an attempt to repair his public standing and portray Wagner’s march on Moscow as a moment that unified Russia.
On Thursday, satellite images emerged of a military base south-east of the Belarus capital, Minsk, that appeared to show new facilities set up in recent days, suggesting the swift construction of a base for Wagner.
Russian media have reported that Wagner, whose leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, arrived in Belarus on Tuesday, could set up a new base at a vacant military facility near the town of Osipovichi, about 50 miles (90km) from Minsk.
Images captured by European Space Agency (Esa) Sentinel-2 satellites on 27 June show rows of long structures in the nearby village of Tsel, in a field that had appeared empty on 14 June.
Reuters could not verify the nature of the construction. The images are publicly available through searches on the Esa website.
The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, invited Wagner to set up operations in his country as part of a deal that ended the mutiny on Saturday.
Also on Thursday there were growing questions as to the whereabouts of a Russian general who US intelligence reportedly believes had prior knowledge of the uprising led by Prigozhin. Gen Sergei Surovikin, who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine, has not been seen in public since Saturday.
There have been unconfirmed reports that Surovikin, who was called a “legendary figure” by Prigozhin upon his appointment, has been arrested. The well-publicised links between Surovikin and Prigozhin have fuelled rumours that Surovikin may be purged or put under investigation for supporting the mutiny.
Scholz said in the interview on Wednesday the Wagner uprising was part of an internal Russian power struggle and the west was not involved in it, echoing comments by the US president, Joe Biden. Scholz said he spoke on Saturday to the leaders of the US, France, Britain and Poland and “we quickly agreed to stay very quiet. We have nothing to do with the conflict in Russia.” He said German intelligence did not have any prior knowledge of the rebellion.
Asked if at any point on Saturday he had hoped the mutiny spelled the end of Putin’s rule, he said it would have made no sense as it was unclear if what would have come after him would have been better.
Asked about the impact of the mutiny on the Ukraine war, the chancellor said a precondition for successful peace talks was Russia accepting it needed to withdraw its troops from the country. “Whether this has become easier or harder through these events is not really clear,” he said.
On the need to continue to help Ukraine, Scholz said: “We must be prepared that it could take a long time.”
With Reuters and Associated Press
