MOSCOW: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was shown speaking to troops in a video released by his ministry on Monday (Jun 26), his first known appearance in public since a mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group.
There was no sound on the video and it was not immediately clear where or when the visit had taken place.
Shoigu was shown flying in a plane with a colleague and hearing reports at a command post run by Russia’s Zapad (West) military grouping.
The Defence Ministry TV channel, Zvezda, said Shoigu, who looked physically unharmed and calm, had listened to a report by Colonel General Yevgeny Nikiforov, the group’s commander, about the current situation on the front lines in Ukraine.
In his mutiny during which he seized control of Russia’s military headquarters in southern Russia, renegade Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had demanded that Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the Chief of the General Staff, be handed over to him so that he could “restore justice”.
Prigozhin accused both men of gross incompetence and corruption and had long been agitating for their removal.
Gerasimov has not been seen since in public, and there was no word from the Kremlin about any new personnel changes when it described the deal that had ended the mutiny.
The Kremlin said the question of personnel changes was the sole prerogative of President Vladimir Putin and could hardly have been part of any deal.
Source: CNA
