In a dramatic twist, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, ordered his troops to retreat from their advance on Moscow on Saturday to avoid potential bloodshed.

Earlier, Prigozhin had voiced intentions to challenge the Russian military’s high command to “restore justice,” a sentiment President Vladimir Putin declared necessitated decisive action.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s office revealed that, with Putin’s endorsement, Lukashenko had engaged in a conversation with Prigozhin.

This dialogue resulted in the mercenary leader’s agreement to de-escalate the tension.

In a press-released audio message, Prigozhin stated: “They wanted to disband the Wagner military company. We embarked on a march of justice on June 23. In 24 hours we got to within 200 km of Moscow. In this time we did not spill a single drop of our fighters’ blood. Now the moment has come when blood could be spilled. Understanding responsibility [for the chance] that Russian blood will be spilled on one side, we are turning our columns around and going back to field camps as planned.”

Before this turnaround, Prigozhin and his PMC Wagner forces had been poised around the Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov-on-Don.

He claimed that his troops crossed state borders and entered Rostov without any obstruction, a detail that heightened the gravity of the situation.

Prigozhin had accused the Russian Ministry of Defense of attacking his troops stationed in Ukraine. According to him, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had deceived President Putin about the state of affairs with Ukraine in February 2022, leading to an invasion of the country.

“The war was needed so that a handful of scumbags could have a blast and get PR attention showing how strong the army is. The war was needed not in order to return the Russian citizens to our bosom and not in order to ‘demilitarize and denazify Ukraine’,” Prigozhin had alleged.

Backing his allegations further, he communicated through his Telegram channel that a missile attack had been launched on a PMC Wagner base. Prigozhin attributed this attack to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

In response to these events, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had issued an arrest warrant for Prigozhin.

The FSB’s statement read: “Prigozhin’s statements and actions are in fact calls for the start of an armed civil conflict on the territory of the Russian Federation and are a stab in the back of Russian servicemen fighting pro-fascist Ukrainian forces. We call on PMC fighters not to make irreparable mistakes, to stop any forceful actions against the Russian people, not to carry out Prigozhin’s criminal and treacherous orders, and to take measures to detain him.”

As the situation reached a climax, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev urged Wagner forces to prevent a “real civil war” from breaking out, pleading with them to “come back to your senses.”

Now, with Prigozhin’s abrupt change of course, it appears the imminent crisis has been averted.

However, the recent events expose potential fractures within Russia’s government, the implications of which may reach far beyond Russian borders.

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