Vladimir Putin gives TV address following Wagner mutiny - BBC News

so let's take a listen to Vladimir Putin

now yeah

I'm addressing Russian citizens

I'm thanking you for your perseverance

for your Unity

[Music]

any attempts to cause domestic Discord

are doomed to failure I'll say this

again

highest levels of social consolidation

has been shown of the executive and

legislative at all levels

a hard an unequivocal position of

support towards the Constitutional order

was taken by

public organizations religious con

religious confessions leading political

parties essentially all of Russia's

Society everyone has been United and

turned into one but the main thing the

responsibility for the fate of our

Fatherland Jesus again from the very

beginning all steps were taken to ensure

the neutralization of the threat to

defend the Constitutional order their

lives and security of our citizens our

Mutiny would have been suppressed in any

case

organizers of the Mutiny even though

they became deranged they could not but

understand this they understood

everything including the fact that they

were commencing a crime aimed at

devising our society and making our

country weaker our country which is now

facing a colossal threat from abroad

unprecedented unprecedented pressure

uh at the front line people are shouting

we mustn't retrieve

they tried to make them shoot at their

own people and this is what

um what the enemies of Russia wanted to

achieve brother killing brother both

neonatas in Kiev they're Western Masters

and various National traitors they

wanted Russia soldiers to kill each

other they wanted servicemen to die

peaceful residents to die they wanted

Russia to lose they wanted our society

to split and drown in a bloody interior

internal strife they rubbed their hands

they dreamed of uh

on the front line during the so-called

counter-offensive but they were wrong I

thank our services I thank her security

agencies special services secret

services

who

saved Russia from The Tragically

destructive consequences

so really really interesting words of

Italy thank you very much for that

translation just a thought as we were

listening to that you've spent an awful

lot of time watching various different

statements uh by Vladimir Putin on state

media there in Russia how do you think

uh This One Compares what do you think

other kind of circumstances where he'll

have clearly he's never had to address

something this serious and Russian

troops filing up uh towards uh Moscow

well what did you make of that you know

those the the last time Putin had to

make

an address like this was back at the

very beginning of his rule in the early

2000s when

um

the Kremlin was trying to suppress a

rebellion in chechnya

since that time most of his speeches

were given at a time of Vladimir Putin's

choosing and as we understand he's very

reluctant to be pressured into doing

something but this speech and the one he

made on Saturday morning

are different he made them because he

really had to and that's really

different from the way that he is used

to operating

and particularly on Saturday when he was

facing this apparent Rebellion by Wagner

he he he uh was running a really high

risk of uh looking weak and today by

failing to address

uh criticisms that he he has failed to

punish the mutineers who were committing

this horrible crime of of rebellion who

betrayed Russia as he said on Saturday

a lot of people are saying that he's

showing weakness and that uh Vladimir

Putin will have to work really hard to

restore his

credibility and Authority among the

movers and shakers in Russia absolutely

fascinating Vitale thank you very much

for that she'll be back with you uh

later on now that I want to go to Colin

P Clarke director of research at the

soup farm group of global intelligence

and security consultancy thanks very

much for coming on the program

thanks for having me so an extraordinary

statement that Vladimir Putin just had

to make what do you well what do you

think about it

yeah I mean I agree with uh the the last

presenter which is that it shows that

Putin is weak I think more than the

weakness it's revealed and that's

important for a number of reasons but

primarily because food you know

surrounds this whole image as one of

strength and calm confidence in machismo

that shattered and tarnished uh but I

think you know just as importantly it

shows that there's really

no strategy for what comes from one to

July they were unprepared for what

happened with pregosian I don't think

they thought he would take it nearly as

far as he did and moreover Moscow is

reliant on the Wagner group to operate

its foreign policy in many parts of the

world so without Wagner they're at a

major loss in terms of projecting

influence so yeah what do you think

happens to the Wagner group now the

suggestion that we heard a little

earlier on that there's this deadline

looming for them to be absorbed within

to the uh the regular army what do you

think happens next

well I mean if the Russians go that

route it can you know considerably

changes what their Force posture and

their military structure looks like

around the world if all of a sudden

Wagner forces are reflagged as Russian

military well now they've got an

official formal presence in places like

Mali Sudan Venezuela Central African

Republic and elsewhere moreover it's a

bit more complicated than that because

if you think about some of the crimes

that Wagner forces have been alleged to

commit including war crimes and crimes

against humanity now that comes with the

Russian military uniform on top of it

and and that makes the you know the

Kremlin I think even more of a pariah

than it already is on the global stage

so there's real ramifications and

consequences here that Putin hasn't

really thought out and I think the world

is kind of coming to terms with those

second and third order effects you know

in real time I'm going to ask a slightly

odd and fair question now because we can

only ever know uh the answer to this uh

years from now but does this feel to you

like a significant moment in the

leadership of Vladimir Putin

I think without question this shows that

Putin is uh you know maybe not uh fit to

lead the Russian State and to kind of

this next generation and I think you

know in the west many people have

speculated that and and suggested that

for years uh and kovic certainly seemed

to have done a number on him uh at least

his kind of psychological State and you

see him sitting at these long tables and

going on these long diatribes about kind

of obscure parts of Russian history but

now I think internally even within his

inner circle there's question is this

who we want to be the public face of our

country you know and there could be some

kind of ensuing power struggle over the

coming weeks and months and you know

that's really bad news for the world

because an unstable Russia with that

many nuclear weapons uh you know

that's not good for Global Security

Colin P Clark great to have your

thoughts thank you very much for coming

on the program

thanks for having me right let's bring

in our panel now to people very well

placed uh to comment on this given both

your uh background great to see you

Miles Taylor Lord Kim Derek miles let's

start with you the U.S perspective where

do you think these statements uh by

Vladimir Putin leave him right now

well I I would agree with Colin in the

previous segment that this all leaves

Putin in a much weakened State and the

immediate conclusion you can draw from

that is it's bad for everyone else uh

now there was a lot of I don't know how

else to put it but a lot of excitement

on social media and in The Wider press

while the Wagner group was marching

towards Moscow but the way this has

ended is probably going to be bad for

Ukraine and the immediate and bad for

the West in the long run bad for Ukraine

because a weekend Putin is really going

to want to show that he's stronger and I

imagine we'll ramp up actions there and

it's bad for the West because Putin's

already starting to seed The Narrative

that there's been Western meddling and

he's going to want to show that he's

strong so that instability that

uncertainty and a very paranoid chief

executive in the Kremlin is exactly what

we don't want and I think the White

House is feeling the same way right now

interesting Kim Derrick your thoughts

yeah I quite agree with that I think

that um but what Putin did in his speech

tonight was to try to recapture some of

the ground he lost with the events of

the last 48 hours I mean a proper strong

man

um crushes rebellions he doesn't do

deals with the people who are rebelling

it let them go up into Exile in a

neighboring country so this won't be a

look that Putin likes at all let alone

the story of the the rebel troops

getting within a couple of hundred miles

of Moscow

um so we're seeing a backlash now in

terms of his rhetoric I think it's right

that it's quite likely he'll find ways

to start blaming the West for it I do

think that he is he is permanently

damaged by this and you know it's

massively speculative to say this is

this is the beginning of a change in in

Russia but I think it's not impossible

but the risk is that you actually end up

with someone who is if this is possible

even worse than Putin even more

extremist than him so it does look like

uh what's already a very unstable

volatile situation where escalation

would be extremely dangerous it can make

things worse interesting miles just want

to come back just to build on that point

you talked about how dangerous this is

right now because Vladimir Putin will in

in your opinion want to retaliate and

demonstrate some uh strength do you

think that this could be the beginning

of the end for him

miles I think you have frozen kim do you

want to just pick up uh with that Lord

Kim Derek do you think this really is

the beginning of the end or it's just

too early to tell this is just too early

to tell but what it told us uh is that

there are some quite profound cracks

beneath the surface I mean the fact that

for example as an earlier earlier

correspondent said that actually the the

the the

um the Wagner troops in rostov seem to

be welcomed by the local population

there wasn't much opposition to them as

they marched on Moscow

um so it suggests that Russian public

opinion maybe isn't as quite behind

Putin as he claimed in that speech that

he that he's just given there's not much

sign of you know rostov of all the

social solidarity he was talking about

so that's a worrying sign for him and um

you know this is uh as others have said

probably the most difficult moment he's

had for a couple of decades and you know

these these revolutions can very very

gradually and then suddenly so I'm not

predicting that he's that he's gone but

this could be the start of something so

interesting Kim and Miles thanks both

for that