THE Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday said all Filipinos in Russia are safe and the situation there is back to normal following the short-lived mutiny of the Wagner private mercenary group.
DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Eduardo Jose De Vega said even the Filipinos in the city of Rostov-on-Don, which the Wagner members occupied on Saturday before eventually withdrawing, are safe and none of them of expressed any desire to move to Moscow or to be repatriated to Manila.
De Vega said the “mini-rebellion” is over and the situation is back to normal.
Nonetheless, De Vega said the DFA through the embassy in Russia headed by Ambassador Igor Bailen continues to monitor the situation, especially amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Earlier, the embassy urged Filipinos in Russia to be vigilant and take the necessary precautions.
The Department of Migrant Workers said it is monitoring the situation in coordination with the DFA.
There are around 10,000 Filipinos in Russia, with about 8,000 to 9,000 living in Moscow.
The Wagner group advanced most of the way to Moscow but turned back on Saturday, deescalating a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power, in a move that the group’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said was done to avoid bloodshed.
The decision not to proceed to Moscow came after Belarussian President and close Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko brokered an agreement to end the crisis.
Yesterday, Kremlin released a first video statement by Putin since the Wagner mutiny.
It was not immediately clear when or where Putin’s statement was recorded.
Putin made a national address to the Russian people on Saturday condemning the mutiny by Wagner mercenaries as a “stab in the back” and vowing to crush it.
He has not commented publicly on the subsequent deal, announced late on Saturday, that appeared to defuse the crisis and avert possible bloodshed by allowing the Wagner fighters to return to base and their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to move to Belarus. — With Jocelyn Montemayor and Reuters
