Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the Wagner private military company “simply doesn't exist” as a legal entity, in comments adding to the series of often bizarre twists that have followed the group’s abortive revolt last month – the most serious threat to Putin’s 23-year rule amid the war in Ukraine. “There is no law on private military organizations. It simply doesn’t exist,” Mr Putin told a Russian newspaper late Thursday, referring to the Wagner group. Mr Putin recounted to Kommersant his own version of a Kremlin event attended by 35 Wagner commanders, including the group's chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on June 29. That meeting came just five days after Prigozhin and his troops staged a stunning but short-lived rebellion against Moscow authorities. The meeting was revealed earlier this week by a Kremlin official. Mr Putin said that at the talks, Wagner rejected an offer to keep its troops in Ukraine, where they have played key battlefield roles, under the leadership of their direct commander. “All of them could have gathered in one place and continued to serve,” Mr Putin told the newspaper, “And nothing would have changed for them. They would have been led by the same person who had been their real commander all along.” Mr Putin has previously said that Wagner troops had to choose whether to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry, move to neighboring Belarus or retire from service. According to him, although “many nodded” when he made his proposal, Mr Prigozhin rejected the idea, responding that “the boys won’t agree with such a decision”. This, Mr Putin said, was one of “several employment options” put forward at the meeting. During the revolt that lasted less than 24 hours, Mr Prigozhin’s mercenaries quickly swept through the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and captured the military headquarters there without firing a shot, before driving to within about 200km (125 miles) of Moscow. Mr Prigozhin described the move as a “march of justice” to oust the military leaders, who demanded that Wagner sign contracts with the Defense Ministry by July 1. The fate of Mr Prigozhin and the terms of a deal that ended the armed rebellion by offering amnesty for him and his mercenaries, along with permission, to move to Belarus remain cloudy. Wagner mercenaries are completing the handover of their weapons to the Russian military, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday. Their disarming of Wagner reflects efforts by Russian authorities to defuse the threat they posed and also appears to herald an end to the mercenary group’s operations on the battlefield in Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces are engaged in a counteroffensive. Read More Russia-Ukraine war – live: Wagner forces training soldiers in Belarus after Prigozhin exile Tucker Carlson and Mike Pence clash in heated exchange over Ukraine at GOP 2024 forum Putin wants to attend an August summit. Host country South Africa doesn't want to have to arrest him Russian antiwar activist allowed into Serbia after spending more than a day at the Belgrade airport Why are Russian and Belarusian players allowed back at Wimbledon? Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

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A female member of Donald Trump's family was involved in decisions over how to handle classified US government documents that he took from the White House, prosecutors have said. In a historic indictment unsealed on Friday, authorities alleged that an unnamed family member gave instructions to Mr Trump's aide Walt Nauta as he was preparing to squirrel away documents that the former president did not wish to give back. The accusation widens the circle of people who may have had unauthorised influence over sensitive information about US nuclear weapons, military plans, foreign relations, and more. Yet the identity of the family member remains a mystery, with the only clue being that Mr Nauta allegedly addressed her as "ma'am". ABC News reported that the woman was likely to be Mr Trump's wife Melania, citing inside sources. Melania Trump's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr Trump is facing 37 criminal charges including willfully retaining national defence information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing a document in a federal investigation, and false statements and representations. Prosecutors claim that Mr Trump schemed to keep hold of some documents in defiance of a legal order to give them back, while storing them insecurely at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida while tens of thousands of guests came and went. Mr Trump contends that he is "an innocent man" and that the charges are "a hoax" contrived by his political enemies. According to the indictment, Mr Trump's family member became involved on 30 May 2022, just day before a lawyer was due to search his storage room for classified documents demanded by the government. Before that happened, Mr Trump allegedly asked Mr Nauta to remove 64 boxes from their storage room and bring them to his private residence, meaning they would not be present for the lawyer to search. That day, the family member allegedly texted Mr Nauta: "Good afternoon, Walt. Happy Memorial Day! I saw you put boxes to POTUS' room. "Just FYI, and I will tell him as well: not sure how many he wants to take on Friday on the plane. We will NOT have room for them. Plane will be full with luggage. Thank you!" Mr Nauta replied with a smiley face emoji, saying: "Good afternoon ma'am. Thank you so much. I think he wanted to pick from them. I don't imagine him wanting to take the boxes. "He told me to put them in the room and that he was going to talk to you about them." The indictment says nothing more about who this family member might have been, how much she knew about the documents, and what her intentions were in texting Mr Nauta. The most prominent women in Mr Trump's immediate family are his wife Melania, his daughter from his first marriage Ivanka, 41, and his daughter from his second marriage Tiffany, 29. The indictment does not suggest that any of them had knowledge of any illegal behaviour. Read More Trump bragged a ‘secret’ document ‘totally wins my case’. A tape of his remarks could land him in prison Trump news — latest: Trump ‘plotted to hide documents from FBI after showing military docs to visitors’ Hiding documents from the FBI and foreign nuclear plans: Key allegations in Trump’s unsealed indictment

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