Russia allies Turkey, Iran pledge support for Putin during Wagner Group coup crisis
Vladimir Putin’s closest allies on the world stage said they had his back Saturday before Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin called off his coup attempt — while Russia’s neighbors beefed up security along their shared borders, and China’s Xi Jinping remained silent.
When the threat of violence still loomed, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey pledged “full support” for the embattled Russian leader in a Saturday morning phone call, the Kremlin said, while Erdogan’s office called for a “peaceful and calm” resolution to the crisis.
Iran, too, proclaimed its firm friendship with Putin, as foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani told state media that the mullahs “support the rule of law in the Russian Federation.”
Meanwhile, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, a key Putin ally, said he brokered the deal with Prigozhin to end the militia’s advance toward Moscow and enter negotiations with the Kremlin.
But two of Russia’s closest neighbors, Latvia and Estonia, announced they were taking immediate action to protect their citizens against any spillover from the rising rebellion.
Everything to know about the Wagner Group's attack on Russia
Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenary fighting force will not face charges and will instead be exiled despite leading an armed insurrection against Moscow on Saturday, the Kremlin said.
Prigozhin, owner and founder of the mercenary organization, called for an armed rebellion and threatened to rush Moscow in order to oust the official whom he accused of ordering the bombing of his war camps in Ukraine.
However, Prigozhin eventually agreed to halt the Wagner Group’s advance on Moscow just 120 miles from the capital after a day-long negotiation the mercenary leader had with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was given permission to broker a deal with Progozhin by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin’s presidential plane left Moscow early Saturday, sparking rumors that he had fled the Russian capital as the Wagner Group’s forces advanced on the city.
The president’s aircraft was spotted on flight radar flying northwest from Moscow to the St. Petersburg area — but then disappeared from the system near the city of Tver, the BBC reported, where Putin owns a large rural retreat.
Edgars Rinkevics, Latvia’s minister of foreign affairs, tweeted that his nation had sealed its border to all “Russians leaving Russia due to current events” — adding, “No direct threat to Latvia at this time.”
“We are seeing evil fight evil,” Rinkevics told the Washington Post.
Estonia also announced it would add security forces along its border, as Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said she was in “close touch” with her counterparts in Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland — four of the nations that saw a rush of fleeing Russians when Putin expanded conscription into the armed forces last year.
The US’s Western allies took a wait-and-see approach to the crisis, with French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and others saying they were “monitoring the situation closely.”
“What we are witnessing is an internal Russian issue,” European Union spokesperson Nabila Massrali told CNN.
