After an attempted insurrection, the Russian PM exhorts the populace to support Putin.

MOSCOW (Reuters) Following the failed revolt by highly armed mercenary fighters on Saturday, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Monday that the nation had suffered “a challenge to its stability” and needed to stay united behind President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin said that the Wagner Group mercenaries would return to their camp and that their commander Yevgeny Prigozhin would relocate to Belarus as part of an agreement struck late on Saturday that ended the situation and prevented probable violence. The Kremlin said that all criminal accusations against him and his combatants will be withdrawn.

Mishustin made a plea for national unity at a televised cabinet meeting in what looked to be the first public remarks by a top Russian official since then in response to what he said were attempts by the West to weaken Russia.

According to technocrat Mishustin, who was named prime minister in 2020, “the main thing in these circumstances is to ensure the sovereignty and independence of our country, the security and well-being of citizens.”

He said, “For this, the unification of the whole society is particularly crucial; we need to operate as one team and preserve the unity of all forces, uniting behind the president.

Former head of Russia’s federal tax office Mishustin also made derogatory remarks against the West.

“Via the entire military, economic, and information machine of the West is directed against us,” he added, quoting the president.

Putin said on Saturday that the Wagner mercenary force’s insurrection had put Russia’s basic existence in danger and pledged to put an end to it.

He hasn’t made any public statements on the dramatic events or the agreement that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko mediated to end the crisis, however, since that time.