Vladimir Putin is now left with the stark option of either agreeing to end the conflict in Ukraine on the terms of the U.S. or up the ante by using more lethal weaponry, the president's former spokesperson said.

Sergei Markov said that Putin remains very popular among elite sections of Russian society despite the abandoned rebellion by Wagner mercenaries as they headed for Moscow.

He also shed some light on why the Wagner soldiers were not met by more resistance in Russia and he said it was because they are treated like "heroes" for fighting for the country in Ukraine.

The Wagner mercenaries returned to their base after Putin accepted an amnesty deal which meant their leader would go into exile.

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The fighters were given guarantees for their safety and the leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, will move to Belarus, according to the agreement mediated by Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Now Markov believes that Putin is left with two extreme options to deal with the situation.

"First of all there is no conflict between Russia and Ukraine, we have conflict between Russia and U.S., and the U.S. occupy Ukraine in 21st century style from 2014 when they overthrew the last democratically elected president," he told CGTN.

"A lot of people in Russia believe that one of the reasons for the Prigozhin (rebellion) is because the Ukrainian war took too long, it is already more than a year and this war should be stopped.

"Kremlin has a choice of how to stop it, either to accept some semi-capitulation which is demanded from Washington or make the Russian army more strong, to use technical nuclear weaponry and also possibly to use mass mobilization in Russia and finally to crush the American puppet regime in Ukraine," Markov claimed. 

Markov does see Putin's position as being weaker now, not due to the fact he didn't kill the soldiers rebelling but because the situation came about in the first place.

He said: "Putin appears to be in a weaker position not because he didn't kill the mutineers headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, no, they had been supported by most of Russian society, because Russian society see the Wagner group and Yevgeny Prigozhin as heroes who should not be killed but be sent to the frontline, to Ukraine." 

Markov concluded that the peaceful solution was a good thing but Moscovites had been shocked at how hundreds of military vehicles got so close to the capital in such a short space of time.

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