Recapitulating the revolt in Russia, through the words of 4 presidents and a mutinous warlord

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Civil war. An evil that must be stopped. Fratricide. A bug about to be squashed.

The dramatic weekend rebellion of a mercenary warlord in Russia that challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin was marked by dramatic language from key players, and some long silences, as the world held its collective breath in the face of the greater challenge. Putin’s government in more than two decades. .

The mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin incited a rebellion against Russia’s military leaders and sent his troops to Moscow, but aborted his mutiny when Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal that included the warlord’s exile in Belarus. Though short-lived, the revolt rocked Russian power circles, tarnished Putin’s aura of total control and gave Ukrainians hope that Russian infighting could help them.

Many unanswered questions remain about how Prigozhin managed to get within 200 kilometers (125 miles) of Moscow with little resistance. But many words came and went. Here’s a look at the past few days with a focus on comments from key figures Prigozhin, Putin and Lukashenko, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Joe Biden.

DAY 1: THE REVOLT BEGINS

Prigozhin had been hurling expletive-laced insults at Russia’s top military commanders for months before escalating their confrontation in Friday night. In a significant challenge to the Kremlin, he argued that Russia’s stated reasons for invading Ukraine, a threat from NATO and neo-Nazis, were lies.

“The evil embodied by the country’s military leadership must be stopped,” the 62-year-old shouted in a recorded statement released Friday. He said his forces were not seeking to challenge Putin and other government structures, but rather: “Justice will be restored in the armed forces, and then justice will be restored throughout Russia.”

His troops have carried out war atrocities in Ukraine, Syria and Africa, and Prigozhin is not opposed to the war in Ukraine. He wants it to be processed more effectively. His forces, powered by tens of thousands of convicted felons recruited from prisons, they have been some of the most effective in the 16-month war.

For months, he accused the military’s high command of depriving his forces of ammunition. TO video in may it showed him standing in front of the bloodied bodies of his slain troops shouting obscenities at Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov, calling them weak and incompetent and blaming them for the carnage.

“They came here as volunteers and died to put you to rest in your mahogany offices,” Prigozhin shouted. “You are sitting in your expensive clubs, your children enjoying the good life and shooting videos on YouTube. Those who do not give us ammunition will be eaten alive in hell!”

Prigozhin, who said he had 25,000 soldiers to march on Moscow with him, vowed his troops would punish Shoigu and urged the army not to resist: “This is not a military coup, but a march of justice.”

DAY 2: PUTIN ADDRESSES THE NATION, PRIGOZHIN WITHDRAWS

As Prigozhin’s forces set up camp in Rostov-on-Don, Putin made a televised address to the nation on Saturday morning calling the uprising “a stab in the back” and pledging harsh punishment for its organizers.

Without mentioning Prigozhin by name, Putin denounced “lawlessness and fratricide.” He likened the rebels’ actions to the 1917 Bolshevik revolution that led to civil war and the collapse of imperial Russia.

The fact that he never mentioned Prigozhin by name, just as he never mentions the name of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, is significant in itself, argues Konstantin Sonin, a Russian professor of political economy at the University of Chicago. “It means that he takes the situation very seriously and is nervous inside,” Sonin said.

Prigozhin initially said his fighters would not give up, as “we don’t want the country to live in corruption, deceit and bureaucracy.”

“Regarding treason, the president was deeply mistaken. We are patriots of our homeland, ”he said.

The Russian army was strengthening the defenses around Moscow, and Lukashenko told Prigozhin that he was about to get “squashed like an insect” later he recalled.

In the evening, Lukashenko had brokered a deal that promised Prigozhin immunity from prosecution even though his forces had shot down Russian helicopters and a military communications plane, killing a dozen airmen. It was a remarkable result given that many other russians they have been imprisoned for the smallest of anti-war gestures.

Zelenskyy said that Moscow was suffering from “large-scale weakness” and that kyiv was protecting Europe from “the spread of evil and Russian chaos.”

Prigozhin ended Saturday with crowds cheering him and his Wagner troops, and they began their retreat.

DAY 3: PRIGOZHIN AND PUTIN ARE SILENCED, MOSCOW RETURNS TO NORMAL

After a day of so much drama, the world was awaiting news of Prigozhin’s whereabouts and fate on Sunday. In Moscow, life returned to normal. People filled the cafes and there was little sign of the “anti-terrorism regime” of movement restrictions and increased security declared the day before. Presenters on state-controlled television stations portrayed the deal that ended the crisis as a display of Putin’s wisdom and broadcast footage of retreating Wagner troops.

Prigozhin was completely silent. When The Associated Press wrote to his press office, he received a reply that read: “Say hello to everyone and will answer questions when you have a normal connection.” Many questions continued to arise, including whether Prigozhin would take a larger contingent of Wagner fighters with him to Belarus, and whether he himself would go there.

Meanwhile, Biden spoke with Zelenskyy and “reaffirmed America’s unwavering support,” the White House said.

Zelenskyy said he told Biden that the aborted rebellion in Russia had “exposed the weakness of the Putin regime.”

DAY 4: PRIGOZHIN, PUTIN AND BIDEN SPEAK

After his day of silence, Prigozhin issued an 11-minute audio statement on Monday in which he denied trying to attack the Russian state and said he acted in response to a deadly attack on his force. “We started our march because of an injustice,” he said.

Putin, in his first public comments since the rebellion, said “Russia’s enemies” hoped the mutiny would divide and weaken Russia, “but they miscalculated.” He identified the enemies as “the neo-Nazis in kyiv, their Western patrons and other national traitors.”

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said special services were investigating whether Western intelligence services were involved.

Early in the war, President Biden went off script during a visit to Warsaw, saying of Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot stay in power.” But in the face of what many saw as a possible coup, Biden became decidedly cautious.

Biden denied any involvement by the US or NATO in the rebellion led by Prigozhin, who also headed the Internet Research Agency, which organized an online interference operation during the 2016 US election that brought Donald Trump to power.

“We made it clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it,” Biden said. “This was part of a fight within the Russian system.”

DAY 5: PRIGOZHIN ARRIVES IN BELARUS

A private plane believed to belong to Prigozhin flew from Rostov to an airbase southwest of the Belarusian capital of Minsk, according to FlightRadar24 data. Belarusian President Lukashenko confirmed that Prigozhin had arrived in Belarus, saying the warlord and some of his troops could stay “for a while” at his expense.

Meanwhile, Moscow said preparations were underway for Wagner’s troops fighting in Ukraine to hand over their heavy weapons to the Russian army.

Russian authorities also said they have closed a criminal investigation into the uprising and have not brought charges of armed rebellion against Prigozhin or his supporters. Still, Putin seemed to set the stage for charges of financial impropriety against an affiliated organization Prigozhin belongs to, or at least cast it in a negative light.

Putin also tried project stability and authority In a Kremlin ceremony, the president descended the red-carpeted stairs of the 15th-century white-stone Palace of Facets to address soldiers and law enforcement officers, thanking them for their actions in preventing rebellion.

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for 29 years while reliant on Russian subsidies and support, made it clear that he saw the events as an existential threat to his own state, which has become something of a vassal of Russia.

“If Russia collapses,” he said, “we will all perish under the rubble.”

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Associated Press journalist Dasha Litvinova contributed from Tallinn, Estonia.