Putin Met With Mercenary Leaders He Had Called Traitors During Mutiny

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia held a lengthy meeting with Yevgeny V. Prigozhin and commanders of his Wagner private military company just days after they had launched a mutiny that put the nation on the brink of a civil conflict, the Kremlin disclosed on Monday.

Mr. Putin had denounced the leaders of the June 23-24 rebellion as traitors, so the startling revelation that he played host to them on June 29 suggests that for all his bluster, he saw a continued use for the mercenary group and its boss. The meeting is the first known contact between the two men since the uprising, which posed the most dramatic challenge to Mr. Putin’s authority in his 23 years in power.

News of the meeting added to the mystery of what will become of Mr. Prigozhin and his force after the insurrection. It remains unclear why a warlord with his own private army, who attempted to depose the Russian military leadership by force, has been allowed to remain in the country, apparently unhindered, allegedly even returning to his hometown, St. Petersburg, to pick up his confiscated guns.

Mr. Putin invited 35 people to the three-hour meeting, including Mr. Prigozhin and all of Wagner’s top commanders, and gave his assessment of the company’s efforts on the battlefield in Ukraine, as well as its actions in the mutiny, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov said.

The Wagner fighters also offered their explanation of what had transpired, according to Mr. Peskov, who suggested the gathering was a chance to clear the air and set a course going forward. “Putin heard out the commanders and proposed further employment options and further combat options,” he said.

The Wagner fighters pledged their loyalty to the Russian leader during the meeting, the Kremlin spokesman added.

“They emphasized that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and commander in chief — and also said they are prepared to fight for the country going forward,” he said.

The picture of Mr. Prigozhin and his top lieutenants sitting peacefully at a table with the Russian leader — just days after Mr. Putin had vowed to crush their rebellion — contrasted with the widely held image of Mr. Putin as a ruthless authoritarian, adept at squelching threats to his rule.

It appeared to reflect a calculation by the Kremlin to avoid fully eradicating an experienced fighting force with a popular following in the middle of a costly war. The Russian president, some analysts say, may also view the insurrection as little more than a factional feud that got out of control. Mr. Prigozhin has said he set out to topple the Russian military leadership — not to challenge Mr. Putin’s rule.

“I would not assume that Prigozhin is back into Putin’s best graces forever and nothing has happened. Something has happened. Conclusions have been drawn for now,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “But just crushing them and crushing him at this point is for some reason disadvantageous, compared to keeping him afloat.”

Andrei Soldatov, a Russian security services expert, said Mr. Putin’s tough talk about treachery had been aimed primarily at the Russian military, to prevent any commanders from siding with the mutiny. Afterward, he said, the president and Mr. Prigozhin “just made another deal.”

“We don’t know the terms,” Mr. Soldatov added. “But the understanding is they know each other, know what to expect from each other, thus they can still cooperate or work together.”

But the revolt put Mr. Putin’s vulnerability on global display, and the admission that he chatted with Wagner leaders risks making him look weaker still.

Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the R.Politik political consultancy, said the Kremlin possibly decided to disclose the meeting to calm a Russian elite that remains confused about what transpired — about whether Mr. Prigozhin is a “traitor or our guy.”

“It’s a signal to the elite that Prigozhin remains systemic,” Ms. Stanovaya said. “Yes, he made a mistake, yes, this is a very serious crime. But due to the specifics of the situation, which is really very unique, Putin will give him the opportunity to survive.”

The mutiny exposed Mr. Putin’s inability or unwillingness to deal with a power struggle that for months had raged in the open, with Mr. Prigozhin regularly launching profanity-laced invective at Russia’s military leadership on Telegram. Ms. Stanovaya, who is also a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said she suspected Mr. Putin felt at least partly responsible for not better managing the escalating feud.

“So for Putin, Prigozhin is of course a traitor, but he’s his traitor,” Ms. Stanovaya said. “That is, a person who made a mistake out of stupidity, rather than out of malice.”

The Kremlin previously had been deflecting questions about Mr. Prigozhin’s status and whereabouts.

On the day Mr. Putin and Mr. Prigozhin met, Mr. Peskov told reporters he didn’t know where Mr. Prigozhin was. The following week, Mr. Peskov said the Kremlin had neither the “ability nor the desire” to track his movements.

But on Friday, the French newspaper Libération reported that Mr. Putin had met with Mr. Prigozhin and his Wagner commanders at the Kremlin to “negotiate the fate of his empire,” which include a range of business ventures.

On Monday, Mr. Peskov confirmed that the meeting took place, but added, “The details of it are unknown.”

Mr. Prigozhin’s forces have been important to Russia’s war against Ukraine, but last month the government ordered Wagner troops fighting there to join the regular military. Facing a major loss of power, Mr. Prigozhin railed loudly against the move, to no avail.

His fighters seized the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, and an important Russian military headquarters there, and staged a drive on Moscow that stopped within 125 miles of the capital.

Mr. Putin warned in a national address against a descent into civil war, and said the harshest punishment awaited those who had “consciously chosen the path of betrayal.”

But the punishment didn’t come.

Hours later, the Kremlin announced a deal, allegedly brokered by the Belarusian leader Aleksandr G. Lukashenko: Mr. Prigozhin would stand down, avoid prosecution and depart for Belarus. Wagner fighters who had participated in the mutiny would also avoid punishment; those who didn’t participate would be given the chance to sign Russian military contracts.

Mr. Prigozhin and his men packed up and retreated.

The agreement outraged hard-line Russian commentators, who noted that the insurrectionists had shot down Russian aircraft, killing military personnel.

In the days since, Mr. Prigozhin’s status has been a mystery. He hasn’t made any public appearances. His company has stopped posting responses to questions from the media. The man who stepped out of the shadows last year to make a public name for himself has gone quiet, at least temporarily.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that in the world of Mr. Putin, where those causing political problems have regularly ended up imprisoned or killed, Mr. Prigozhin is not only still alive but appears to be moving freely around Russia.

Mr. Lukashenko said days after the mutiny that Mr. Prigozhin had arrived in Belarus, but it is not clear if that was true. Last week the Belarusian leader said Mr. Prigozhin was in Russia — which U.S. officials confirmed — and was a “free man.”

On Thursday, Mr. Prigozhin was spotted arriving in a BMW 7-series sedan at the St. Petersburg headquarters of the F.S.B., a successor to the Soviet-era K.G.B., where he collected weapons that the Russian authorities had seized from his country house during the mutiny, the independent news outlet Fontanka reported. Days earlier, Fontanka said, one of his drivers had arrived to collect billions of rubles, hundreds of thousands of dollars and several gold bars that Russian authorities had seized in vehicles parked at St. Petersburg hotels associated with him.

Mr. Lukashenko said just after the uprising that Wagner fighters, like their leader, would be welcome in Belarus. Last week, his government said none had come, but that that might change.

A prominent Wagner commander, Anton Yelizarov, who goes by the nom de guerre Lotos, gave an interview to a Russian war blogger on Friday, from southern Russia, in which he said all Wagner fighters had been released on break until early August — and suggested he was spending time with his family by the sea.

In the interview, posted on Telegram, Mr. Yelizarov said Wagner would stand aside in Ukraine for the time being and had a lot of work to do to prepare its “exit” to Belarus.

“There’s no clash with law enforcement agencies, the president guaranteed us that,” Mr. Yelizarov said. “As for society and normal people, you can see for yourself: girls are walking around with patches that they coaxed off our guys, most likely for kisses. Boys are wearing T-shirts and hats with our logos. Little kids are playing war games, with the Ukrainians as the Germans and Wagner PMC fighters as the Red Army.”

He didn’t exclude the possibility of the mercenary group becoming involved again in Ukraine. “Our armored train is in reserve, and we stand ready to come to the aid of our Motherland and our nation when the Russian people call us,” he said.