RUSSIA ON THE BRINK

Mutineers halt advance as 'Putin flees Moscow'

- Marco Giannangeli

Shock march on Moscow leaves Putin weakened

RUSSIA was on the brink of civil war last night after a mutiny by a renegade warlord in control of a private army.

With 10,000 mercenaries commanded by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin just 120 miles away from Moscow on "a march for justice", every flight out of the Russian capital was fully booked.

President Vladimir Putin was also reported to have fled to St Petersburg.

But Prigozhin halted the rapid advance of his army, which had troop carriers and at least one tank, saying he wanted to "avoid bloodshed". Earlier, the 61-year-old had publicly denounced the war in Ukraine for being "based on a lie".

With the Wagner army of private contractors and former prison inmates last night heading back to their bases, Putin's grip on power was left at its weakest for decades.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last night said no one was in control and Russia was in "total chaos".

It was not known last night if Prigozhin's turnaround was the result of a promise of more power from Putin, or a pledge that a plan to incorporate the 50,000-strong private army into Russia's conventional armed forces would be scrapped.

"We don't know why he stopped it could be for as little as an assurance not to incorporate Wagner into Russian armed forces," said Justin Crump of the Sibylline strategic risk group.

"Prigozhin has always advocated fighting the war more violently.

"If he has been given the green light to do this, it could spell bad news for Ukraine. But either way, his about-face will have lost him a lot of trust among those soldiers who may have considered joining him."