Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 26) — Around 10,000 Filipinos in Russia are safe following 36 hours of chaos caused by members of a paramilitary group which threatened the leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday.
In an interview with CNN Philippines, DFA Assistant Secretary Paul Cortes said no Filipinos requested for repatriation even from the city of Rostov-on-Don, which was initially occupied by the Wagner private military group on June 23.
\”As far as Russia is concerned, the crisis has ended and averted but due to the ongoing political situation we have an advisory to our 10,000 kababayans to make sure that they are safe and sound and kung ano man ang mangyari [whatever happens] we are ready to bring them back home,\” Cortes said.
The DFA official said that while the majority of the Filipinos in Russia live in Moscow, there are 11 Filipinos known to be in the city of Rostov-on-Don which was initially occupied by the Wagner group.
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\”All of the Pinoys are safe,\” Cortes said. \”The Embassy was in touch [with these] 11 Filipinos making sure that they are aware of the situation and monitoring their safety.\”
\”This shows that the DFA and the rest of the Embassies in many parts of the world are ready and on hand in making sure that our kababayans are all accounted for,\” he added.
Cortes said they did not receive any repatriation request from Filipinos in Russia unlike what happened in Sudan.
The DFA said Filipinos in Russia are mostly professionals, skilled workers, and students.
Thousands of Wagner fighters led by Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to threaten Putin’s grip on power in a short-lived uprising near Moscow.
The Kremlin, however, managed to avert the crisis by reaching a deal with the group to end the apparent insurrection.
A CNN report said Wagner fighters will face no legal actions from the Kremlin side as part of their deal. Prigozhin, in the meantime, will head to Belarus.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while the insurrection was short-lived, the move showed “cracks’ in Putin’s leadership.
\”This is just an added chapter to a very, very bad book that Putin has written for Russia. But what’s so striking about it is, it’s internal,\” Blinken told CNN.
\”The fact that you have from within someone directly questioning Putin’s authority, directly questioning the premises that upon which he launched this aggression against Ukraine. That, in and of itself, is something very, very powerful. It adds cracks. Where those go, when they get there, too soon to say, but it clearly raises new questions that Putin has to deal with,\” he added.
