Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says a failed coup in Russia is a direct consequence of President Vladimir Putin's disastrous decision to invade Ukraine. Mercenaries led by former Putin ally and Wagner Group founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, came within 200km of the capital Moscow and captured the city of Rostov, where Russian generals are overseeing the war against Ukraine. But the coup was put off following intervention by Belarus, which brokered a deal with Mr Putin's approval to halt the advance of Wagner troops in return for guarantees of their safety. Mr Albanese told the ABC it was unlikely the situation in Russia had been resolved. "Quite clearly, you can't have events like that and just wipe them out, pretend that you'll go back to stability," he said. "What's very clear to me is that the Russian illegal invasion of Ukraine has been a disaster for the people of Ukraine most importantly, but it's also been a disaster for the people of Russia." Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the mutiny demonstrated Mr Putin's decision to invade the neighbouring country was wrong. "The division in Russia does call into question the decision which we have all criticised and which we are standing here to oppose today, which was the decision to illegally and immorally invade Ukraine," she told reporters in Canberra. Senator Wong urged Australians in Russia to leave immediately due to the deteriorating security situation. Mr Albanese said he received multiple briefings over the weekend on the international events. "(The war in Ukraine) has been a disaster for Mr Putin. He overplayed his hand and he got it wrong, and some of the consequences of that, I think, we saw playing out on the weekend," he said. University of Wollongong senior lecturer Stephen Brown said the challenge was unusual, as Mr Prigozhin had both the "audacity and resources". "Prigozhin is one of the two most popular men in Russia," he told AAP. "The disagreement is over his perception the Russian military is hopeless and if he were put in charge, the war in Ukraine would be better managed." Mr Putin was having "pressure heaped on him" to escalate efforts in Ukraine, but some military experts believed Russia had exhausted what it could reasonably contribute to the war, Dr Brown said. He noted a full mobilisation had not taken place, with Mr Putin keen to keep most of the population in the two major cities of Moscow and St Petersburg unaffected by the war. Mr Prigozhin announced his "march for justice" to remove corrupt and incompetent Russian commanders he blamed for botching the war with Ukraine after Russia invaded in 2022. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Prigozhin would move to Belarus under the deal, but the situation remains unstable and is being closely watched by the US, France, Germany, Britain and their allies. Australian Associated Press
