Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that soldiers who took part in the Wagner mutiny could now join the Russian army or 'go to Belarus'.

The short-lived mutiny ended on Saturday evening when Yevgeny Prigozhin head of the Wagner mercenary army called off a march on Moscow for fear it could end up with Russians fighting each other.

The Kremlin subsequently dropped treason charges and said Prigozhin would go to Belarus. 

"Today you have the possibility to continue serving Russia by entering into a contract with the ministry of defence or other law enforcement agencies, or to return to your family and close ones... Whoever wants to can go to Belarus," Putin said in an address on state media on Monday.

Putin thanked the Russian people for 'patriotism' during the revolt.

He warned that any attempt at blackmail or to cause unrest in Russia was 'doomed to fail'

"Civilian solidarity showed that any blackmail, any attempts to organise internal turmoil, is doomed to fail," Putin said in a televised address. 

He also claimed the West and Ukraine wanted Russians to 'kill each other'.

"From the start of the events, on my orders steps were taken to avoid large-scale bloodshed," Putin said.

"It was precisely this fratricide that Russia's enemies wanted: both the neo-Nazis in Kyiv and their Western patrons, and all sorts of national traitors. They wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other," he said.

Prigozhin in a recorded message earlier claimed the march on Moscow was a protest and not an attempt to overthrow the government. His whereabouts and the future of his private army are unknown.