Putin’s acquaintance, Yevgeny Prigozhin, forgave the fighters and scolded the celebrating Russians. Behind this are political ambitions.
“You’ve done more than you need to. You’re no longer guilty of the Fatherland,” says the bald man in the camouflage suit. He laughs. “You’ve been given a new life. Now you have money, fame – and freedom.” It is Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Russian private army Wagner. Prigozhin is in front of maybe two dozen men. They are former prisoners, convicted criminals, whom Prigozhin has been recruiting from Russian prisons for combat use in Ukraine since the fall. The 61-year-old promised freedom to those arrested at the time. And Prigozhin now keeps his promise. He pardons the returnees, one after the other, just like that, without a court decision, and even has a Wagner medal. Among the men is Dmitry Karyagin, sentenced to fourteen and a half years in prison in 2016. He killed his grandmother with a hammer.
Videos of the disturbing scene were released by Russian news agencies earlier this week. The staging expresses the brutality, arbitrariness and illegality unleashed by the Russian attack on Ukraine. What applies is the law of violence. The man who first had prisoners kidnapped from the Russian prison and is now releasing them is not an official representative of the Russian state. Private armies are also prohibited by law in Russia. Actually. But Prigozhin, originally known as a food entrepreneur in St. Petersburg, has the Kremlin’s backing; he is personally acquainted with President Vladimir Putin. In Ukraine and other theaters of war, he has carte blanche for delicate tasks.