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Under a deal late on Saturday that defused the crisis and
averted possible bloodshed, the Kremlin said the Wagner Group
mercenaries would return to base, while their leader Yevgeny
Prigozhin would move to Belarus. All criminal charges against
him and his fighters would be dropped, the Kremlin said.
In what appeared to be the first public comments by a senior
Russian official since then, Mishustin appealed at a televised
government meeting for national unity in the face of what he
said were efforts by the West to undermine Russia.
"The main thing in these conditions is to ensure the sovereignty
and independence of our country, the security and well-being of
citizens," said Mishustin, a technocrat who was appointed prime
minister in 2020.
"For this, the consolidation of the whole of society is
especially important; we need to act together, as one team, and
maintain the unity of all forces, rallying around the
president," he said.
Mishustin, a former head of Russia's federal tax service, also
took a swipe at the West.
"As the president noted, virtually the entire military,
economic, information machine of the West is directed against
us," he said.
Putin said on Saturday that the rebellion by the Wagner
mercenary force had threatened Russia's very existence under
threat and vowed to crush it.
However, he has not publicly commented since then on the
dramatic events or on the deal brokered by Belarusian President
Alexander Lukashenko that defused the crisis.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Kevin
Liffey)
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