Putin says Russian mercenary group has no legal basis so ‘doesn’t exist’

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said the private military company Wagner “simply does not exist” as a legal entity, in comments that add to the series of bizarre twists that have followed the group’s failed revolution last month — the gravest threat to Putin’s 23-year rule amid the war in Ukraine.

There is no law for military organizations. Putin told a Russian newspaper late Thursday, referring to the Wagner Group.

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Putin recounted to Kommersant his own version of the Kremlin event attended by 35 Wagner leaders, including the head of the group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on June 29. This meeting came just five days after Prigozhin and his forces staged a spectacular but short-lived insurrection against Moscow. authorities.

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The meeting was revealed earlier this week by a Kremlin official.

During the talks, Putin said, Wagner turned down an offer to keep his forces in Ukraine, where they play key roles on the battlefield, under their direct commander.

Putin told the newspaper: “They could gather in one place and continue to serve, and nothing would change for them. They could be led by the same person who has been their real leader all along.

Putin said earlier that Wagner’s forces must choose whether to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry, move to neighboring Belarus or retire from service.

According to Putin, although “many nodded” when he made his proposal, Prigozhin rejected the idea, responding that “the boys will not agree to such a decision.”

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Putin said this was one of the “many employment options” that were put forward at the meeting.

During the rebellion, which lasted less than 24 hours, Prigozhin’s mercenaries quickly overran the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and captured the military headquarters there without firing a shot, before driving to within 200 kilometers (125 mi) of Moscow. Prigozhin called the move a “march of justice” to oust the military leaders, who demanded that Wagner sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense by 1 July.

Prigozhin’s fate and the terms of the deal that ended the armed rebellion by offering amnesty to him and his mercenaries, along with permission to move to Belarus, remain obscure.

On Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that Wagner mercenaries are completing the handover of their weapons to the Russian army.

Their disarmament of Wagner reflects the Russian authorities’ efforts to defuse the threat they pose and also seems to herald the end of the mercenary group’s battlefield operations in Ukraine, where Kiev’s forces are engaged in a counteroffensive.

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Follow AP coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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