WASHINGTON — President Biden spoke Saturday with the leaders of the largest NATO countries in Europe about the stunning mercenary mutiny by the Wagner Group in Russia — and then took no questions from reporters as he departed for a weekend trip to Camp David with his scandal-plagued son Hunter.
In a series of shocking developments hours earlier, Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin effectively declared war on the Kremlin and appeared to capture the city of Rostov-on-Don near the Ukrainian border in southern Russia while mercenaries advanced on Moscow.
Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron of France, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and “discussed the situation in Russia” and “affirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine,” the White House said.
Biden delayed by more than an hour his planned Saturday-morning White House departure to the military-run presidential retreat in western Maryland and answered no questions from reporters as he boarded the Marine One helicopter at Joint Base Andrews with Hunter Biden, who on Tuesday agreed to plead guilty to federal tax and gun charges.
President Biden and the leaders of the largest NATO countries in Europe spoke Saturday about the stunning mercenary mutiny by the Wagner Group in Russia. Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/ShutterstockPrigozhin accused Shoigu and other Kremlin military leaders of incompetence and wasting the lives of Russians fighting in Ukraine and vowed to more effectively wage war on the Western-backed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Despite his early successes, he reached a deal to abort the revolt later Saturday, the Kremlin said.
Still, the chaos could spell long-term consequences for American adversary Putin, current and former US officials said.
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.
“It exposes a huge weakness for Putin. With all of his forces committed to Ukraine, this may not be the last march on Moscow we see,” former US undersecretary of defense for intelligence Ezra Cohen told The Post shortly after Prigozhin’s march on Moscow ended.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a foreign policy hawk who recently visited Ukraine in a show of support for President Volodymyr Zelensky’s plans to retake Russian-occupied regions, tweeted: “As internal strife and chaos occurs inside of Russia may the outcome eventually be: The Russian people freed from corrupt, autocratic war criminal dictators like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
John Ullyot, a former Marine Corps intelligence officer and Trump-era National Security Council spokesman, said “it’s not surprising” that Prigozhin reached a last-minute deal.
Yevgeny Prigozhin announced that 25,000 of his men would leave the frontlines of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and seek to topple the leadership of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Prigozhin/e2w“If the Wagner Group had pressed forward it’s very likely it would have ended up [in] a highway of death as happened to Saddam Hussein’s forces during the Gulf War,” Ullyot told The Post.
Still, “this is such a direct threat by the Wagner Group that it’s hard to understand how a deal would result in any type of stability,” he added.
“The real determining factor here will be whether the generals who are loyal to Putin remain loyal to him, as they have so far, or whether they will see this as a sign of weakness that then they can exploit in some way down the line.”
Prigozhin posted a video of himself chastising captured senior officers at the captured Russian Southern Military District in Rostov on Saturday. Telegram @concordgroup_official//AFP via Getty ImagesZelensky’s government this month launched an offensive aimed at retaking Russian-controlled parts of southern and eastern Ukraine and some US officials bordered on glee at Russian in-fighting.
A senior US intelligence official told Messenger reporter James LaPorta that it was a “watch and see if they destroy themselves sort of situation.”
Putin, in power since 2000, called the Wagner Group’s rebellion “treason” in an early-Saturday address to his nation, before reportedly agreeing to amnesty for the Wagner leadership and fighters.
Biden is expected to remain out of public view until he returns to Washington on Sunday.
Hunter Biden, with whom the president will spend the weekend, sought out business with at least two Russian oligarchs during his father’s vice presidency — Yelena Baturina, the former first lady of Moscow, and Vladimir Yevtushenkov, who formerly controlled Russian military contracting companies.
Hunter Biden sought out business with at least two Russian oligarchs during his father’s vice presidency. APUnlike many other members of Russia’s business elite, Baturina and Yevtushenkov have yet to face Biden administration sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Prigozhin’s seasoned and ruthless mercenary group, which previously fought alongside Russia’s military during the Syrian Civil War, has been crucial to the Russian war effort in Ukraine — giving Kyiv’s allies cause for hope amid the power struggle.
Prigozhin is known for his populist appeals to the Russian public and published on Saturday a video of himself chastising senior officers at the captured Russian Southern Military District in Rostov.
US leaders are intensely watching developments in Russia, which has the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, canceled a trip to Israel that was supposed to begin Sunday to stay focused on the developments in Russia, Axios reporter Barak Ravid reported on Twitter.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted Saturday that he “[s]poke today with G7 Foreign Ministers and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to discuss the ongoing situation in Russia. The United States will stay in close coordination with Allies and partners as the situation continues to develop.”
Biden is scheduled to attend an annual NATO conference in Lithuania, which borders Russia, on July 11-12, before visiting Finland to celebrate that Russian neighbor’s recent admission to the western military alliance.







