Yevgeny Prigozhin News

Capital controls have helped insulate the rouble against geopolitics in the 16 months since Russia invaded Ukraine, but mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's aborted march toward Moscow on June 24 has reverberated through markets and raised questions about President Vladimir Putin's grip on power. By 1315 GMT, the rouble was 1.7% weaker against the dollar at 90.54, earlier hitting 91.0675, its weakest point since March 28, 2022. It lost 1.6% to trade at 98.76 versus the euro, earlier passing the 99 mark for the first time in more than 15 months, and shed 1.2% against the yuan to 12.49, a more than 14-month low.

President Vladimir Putin says that the Russian people were “united as never before” as he sought to project confidence in the wake of a short-lived revolt at a meeting of a rare international organization where he can find a sympathetic audience

Vladimir Putin claimed Tuesday that the Russian people were «united as never before,» as he sought to project confidence in the wake of a short-lived revolt, at a meeting of a rare international organization where he can find a sympathetic audience. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, hosted via videoconference by India, was Putin's first multilateral summit since an armed rebellion rattled Russia and comes as he is eager to show that the West has failed to isolate Moscow over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian military says it has fended off a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow that prompted authorities to briefly close one of the city's airports

Vladimir Putin reassured Asian leaders of Russia's stability and unity on Tuesday in his first appearance at an international forum since the country was rocked by a brief armed mutiny last month. «The Russian people are consolidated as never before,» Putin told a virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a group that also includes China and India. «Russian political circles and the whole of society clearly demonstrated their unity and elevated sense of responsibility for the fate of the Fatherland when they responded as a united front against an attempted armed mutiny.» Putin's emphasis on Russia's unity at a meeting with key allies appeared to show how keen he is to remove any doubts about his own authority on the world stage after the short-lived mutiny led by Wagner mercenary founder Yevgeny Prigozhin late last month. Wagner fighters took control of a southern city and advanced towards Moscow on June 24, confronting Putin with the gravest challenge to his hold on power since taking over as Russia's paramount leader on the last day of 1999.

Xi Jinping urged Russian, Iranian and other leaders on Tuesday to work towards safeguarding «regional peace» as he addressed a virtual summit of their Shanghai alliance. Xi «called for efforts to safeguard regional peace and ensure common security», state news agency Xinhua said, adding that he urged member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to «follow the right direction and enhance their solidarity and mutual trust».

The recent mutiny in Russia revealed cracks in President Vladimir Putin’s regime and raised hopes in the West that his days in power were numbered. There are two reasons for caution: Autocrats have remarkable staying power and only rarely are replaced by a democratic government. Images of hundreds of heavily armed men rumbling in a convoy toward Moscow raised the possibility that the man who launched the Ukraine war and has dominated Russian politics for more than two decades could lose power.

Wagner boss of «going off the rails» after receiving billions in public funds, as Moscow's new narrative takes shape after Wagner's brief mutiny. Last weekend the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, led his forces in a short-lived rebellion against Russia's top military brass, in a huge embarrassment for the Kremlin. «Prigozhin has gone off the rails because of big money,» Dmitry Kiselev, one of the main faces of the Russian propaganda machine, said on his weekly television show on Sunday.

The battle for Soledar raged in freezing temperatures on Wednesday, with Russia's mercenary Wagner Group claiming to have taken control of the eastern Ukrainian salt mining town, as its fighters poured fire on a pocket of resistance in the centre.

Ukraine said it was strengthening its forces around Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region and repelling constant attacks there by the Russian mercenary group Wagner, whose leader has vowed to capture the area's vast underground mines.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and a close ally of Vladimir Putin, admitted on Monday that he was behind the Wagner paramilitary group.