BACK IN ACTION?
Putin’s defence chief ‘seen for first time’ since missing Wagner boss Prigozhin demanded he be ousted in armed rebellion
RUSSIA's defence minister Sergei Shoigu was pictured meeting war commanders today as he desperately clings to his job.
He was facing down demands for his head from Yevgeny Prigozhin - leader of the extraordinary rebellion by Wagner mercenaries at the weekend.
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Prigozhin - a long-time Putin associate - said Shoigu and army chief General Valery Gerasimov should take the blame for Russia’s incompetent war in Ukraine.
Shoigu, 68, was not seen in public as the Wagner rebels came within 120 miles from Moscow before calling off the mutiny.
Putin has also not been spotted in public since the mutiny ended suddenly late on Saturday, and Prigozhgin's whereabouts are unknown.
In the wake of the failed coup - and amid rumours he had already been removed - Shoigu was eager to give the appearance he was still in charge.
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In footage released by his ministry early today, he wore military fatigues as he met Russia’s Western group of troops fighting in eastern Ukraine.
He was briefed by commander Colonel-General Yevgeny Nikiforov “on the current situation at the front” and the “nature of enemy actions”, the ministry said.
Shoigu was filmed both at a meeting with top brass and being shown the battle positions from the air.
However it was not possible to ascertain when the visit took place.
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One picture shows the time on Shoigu's watch as being shortly before one o'clock.
However, Russian pro-war bloggers claimed the footage is from Friday - before the chaotic 24-hour rebellion was launched.
Putin has not fired any of his top team - many now in their late sixties or early seventies - despite humiliating setbacks in the war.
Gerasmov, 67, also remains in post so far despite Prigozhin’s demands for him to be fired and even prosecuted.
Meanwhile, the Wagner chief, 62, has not been spotted since agreeing on a deal to turn back his coup forces marching on Moscow.
He was due to travel into exile in authoritarian Belarus as part of the quick-fix pact with Putin, but there is no sign he has done so.
Rumours are swirling in Moscow that Putin, 70, has lined up Tula governor and ex-deputy defence minister Alexei Dyumin, 50, to be the next defence minister, replacing Shoigu.
He is a trusted former Putin bodyguard who once saved the Kremlin leader from an attack by a vicious brown bear.
He is rumoured to have played a role in the pact which stopped the coup march into Moscow on Saturday.
And he is believed to be involved in secret funding channels used by the Kremlin elite.
Planes linked to Putin and his presidential entourage returned to Moscow amid suggestions that he had sat out Saturday’s dramatic events at his palace in Valdai - north of Moscow - which he shares with secret lover Alina Kabaeva, 40, and their undisclosed children.
Footage emerged today of the Russian military machine’s bombing of a road in Voronezh region as it sought to stop the coup march.
Estimates suggest Putin suffered grievous losses of up to 39 air crew who were blasted out of the sky by Wagner forces on Saturday.
He lost six helicopters and an Il-22 commander and control plane as Russians killed Russians amid their war with Ukraine.
Dyumin has been long rumoured for promotion and some analysts see him as Putin’s chosen heir.
They had assumed he would be catapulted into the role of prime minister at the point when Putin was ready to quit due to political problems or ill health.
Pro-war commentators were overnight talking up the prospect of Dyumin being appointed defence minister.
Putin has travelled to Tula several times to meet Dyumin during the war. The city is a key site for arms plants crucial to the war effort.
Dyumin earlier told how he stared at the bear that came to attack Putin in a presidential mountain retreat.
"Naturally, I was armed, the president was upstairs,” said the governor, seen as a potential action man president if and when Putin is forced to quit.
“So the bear and I looked into each other’s eyes, and he stepped back a little.
“I opened the door and emptied the entire cartridge of my pistol under his feet.”
The beast retreated.
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"I felt pity for the bear,” said Dyumin.
Putin later praised him for not killing the beast.
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