Yevgeny Prigozhin the founder of the controversial Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner has denied any intentions to overthrow the regime in Russia.
“We went to demonstrate our protest and not to overthrow power in the country,” Prigozhin said on Monday in his first audio message since calling off the Wagner march at the weekend.
Prigozhin said his aborted rebellious march on Moscow had shown a “very serious security problem” in Russia.
In the audio file released by his press service, Prigozhin said the convoy stopped 200 kilometers (125 miles) short of Moscow and had “blocked all military infrastructure” including air bases along its path.
He also said his fighters had the support of “happy” civilians in towns they went through as they advanced on Moscow.
“In Russian towns, civilians met us with Russian flags and the symbols of Wagner,” Prigozhin said. “They were all happy when we passed through.”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has proposed ways in which Wagner could continue to operate, Prigozhin added.
“Lukashenko held out his hand and offered to find solutions for the continuation of the work of the Wagner private military company in a legal jurisdiction,” Prigozhin said.
Meanwhile, Prigozhin remains under Russian investigation despite the Kremlin saying criminal charges against him had been dropped, state media say.
The Kremlin has vowed to incorporate Wagner into the regular Russian armed forces.
But Wagner was still openly recruiting into its own ranks on Monday for service in Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
A notice on Wagner’s Telegram channel offers new recruits a minimum of 240,000 roubles a month (£2,236; $2,843) – a fortune for most Russians, especially those in poor regions. It lists call-up centres across Russia, the main one being at Molkino in the far south.
In the eastern Siberian city of Novosibirsk the mercenary group was also recruiting, Russia’s Tass news agency reported. The Wagner office there had been shut down on Saturday – but on Monday its banners were on display there again.
Wagner has long been seen as a key tool in Mr Putin’s ambition to restore Russian influence globally.
