The comments on the crisis late on Monday were followed by Putin meeting Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu, the head of Russia’s main domestic security service, and other top ministers, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“I thank all the soldiers and intelligence service staff who stood in the way of the mutineers,” the Russian leader said, adding everything possible was done on his orders to avoid bloodshed.

He also thanked Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for mediating with Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin to call off the armed group’s advance on Moscow.

Putin – without mentioning Prigozhin by name – thanked the mercenary commanders and soldiers who avoided bloodshed, and said he would honour his promise to allow Wagner forces to relocate to Belarus if they wanted, sign a contract with Russia’s defence ministry, or return to their families.

All attempts to sow chaos in Russia were destined to fail, the president said. He blamed “Russia’s enemies” and said they “miscalculated”.

“The organisers of the mutiny who betrayed the country also betrayed those who were on their side,” said Putin.

Russia analyst Pavel Felgenhauer described Putin’s comments as a “victory speech directed towards the Russian public”.

“Of course this doesn’t mean that problems have dissipated. It’s not fine actually because Putin called on the Wagner fighters to join the defence ministry – and they’re not doing it,” he told Al Jazeera.

“They are still there with their weapons, they are well organised, they’re the best fighting force in the land right now. And what will be their next move is not clear. Right now they most likely feel threatened. They didn’t disappear.”

‘Not a coup’

Earlier Prigozhin defended his “march for justice” on Moscow with a convoy of tanks, saying the move was not an attempted coup and was conducted as a protest against Russia’s military leadership.

He called the move a reaction to an attack on his forces that he said killed about 30 fighters. He spoke on Monday in his first audio statement since the aborted armed rebellion he staged on Saturday.

“We went to demonstrate our protest and not to overthrow power in the country,” Prigozhin said. “We halted at the moment when the first assault unit deployed its artillery [near Moscow], conducted reconnaissance, and realised that a lot of blood would be spilled.”

Prigozhin shocked the world by leading Saturday’s armed revolt, only to abruptly call it off as his fighters approached the capital having shot down several aircraft but meeting no resistance on the ground during a dash of nearly 800km (500 miles).

Russia’s three main news agencies reported on Monday a criminal case against Prigozhin had not been closed, an apparent reversal of an offer of immunity publicised as part of the deal that persuaded him to stand down.

Prigozhin gave few clues about his own fate, including his whereabouts, or the deal under which he halted the move towards Moscow.

‘Bullet in the head’

Though the mutiny was brief, it was not bloodless. Russian media reported several military helicopters and a communications plane were shot down by Wagner forces, killing at least 15. Prigozhin expressed regret for attacking the aircraft but said they were bombing his convoys.

The feud between the Wagner Group leader and Russia’s military brass has festered throughout the war.

Andrei Gurulev, a retired general and current lawmaker who has had rows with the mercenary leader, said Prigozhin and his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin deserve “a bullet in the head”.

Prigozhin taunted Russia’s military on Monday, calling his march a “master class” on how it should have carried out the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said Prigozhin’s mutiny “wasn’t a bid for power or an attempt to overtake the Kremlin” but a desperate move amid his escalating rift with the military leadership.

While Prigozhin could get out of the crisis alive, he does not have a political future in Russia under Putin, Stanovaya said on Twitter.

US President Joe Biden called the mutiny “part of a struggle within the Russian system” and NATO nations played no part in it.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said it was “a new thing to see President Putin’s leadership directly challenged. It is a new thing to see Yevgeny Prigozhin directly questioning the rationale for this war and calling out that the war has been conducted essentially based on a lie.”

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said US policy did not seek to change the government in Russia.