Curiously, as warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin’s fighters advanced on Moscow, Margarita Simonyan, arch-propagandist and editor of the state news channel RT, remained silent.
Simonyan – once one of Prigozhin’s biggest cheerleaders in Russia’s elite – later explained that she had been on a Volga cruise and filmed a cultural documentary about centuries-old Orthodox churches, happily unaware that the state was on the brink of collapse.
Her unlikely explanation for missing the greatest threat to President Vladimir Putin’s 23-year rule marked the day-long lull in propaganda before Moscow’s elite began busily rewriting the narrative about the once-rising warlord, attributing Prigozhin’s actions condemn and forecast a speedy return to normality in the country’s capital and beyond.
In the state and Kremlin-affiliated media, many former Prigozhin cheerleaders quickly labeled him a traitor and accused him of trying to destabilize Russia. However, they also engaged in complex ju-jitsu to justify Putin’s public handling of the situation.
After mentioning her Volga excursions on a state television talk show, Simonyan defended with extreme flexibility Putin’s attempt to drop the charges against Prigozhin’s Wagner group, despite promises hours earlier that he would punish them.
“Norms of law are not the commandments of Christ or the tablets of Moses,” Simonyan said. “They are written by people to protect the rule of law and stability in the country. . . In some exceptionally critical cases. . . You go out the window.”
Many Russians, not least those who accompanied Wagner’s march, privately admitted that they were unsettled and sensed that the war in Ukraine was about to hit harder than before.
“There was a feeling that now in the center of Russia a war would start with people who had already fought and were not afraid of anything,” admitted a man, a pro-war supporter, living in the southwestern city of Voronezh, who said on Saturday Saw videos of Wagner men flocking to his hometown.
“I thought Voronezh would turn into Bakhmut,” he added, referring to the devastated Ukrainian city that Wagner had besieged. “It got scary.”
A young mother from the Voronezh suburbs, who wanted to leave the country but was struggling to find long-distance work, said the Wagner uprising — as well as the bombing in the Russian city of Shebekino — further eroded what remained of a sense of stability.
“We were locked in our village [on Saturday],” she said. “That’s been my biggest fear since the beginning of the war, that we’ll be stuck and won’t be able to get out. And here it is, recognized.”
Pro-Kremlin voices praised Putin for stabilizing the situation and brushed aside apparent contradictions.
Dmitry Kiselyov, Russia’s de facto chief propagandist, claimed in his flagship current affairs show that the uprising proved that “Russia has again passed the test of maturity.” Society does not support a revolt, he said.
“Why was it possible to end an attempted uprising without bloodshed? Because the people placed the greatest trust in the President,” said Kiselyov.
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But with Putin limiting his public remarks to a five-minute tirade on Monday and most of Russia’s other top officials, save for Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, remaining silent, even the Kremlin’s most eager mouthpieces had little to work with.
A special edition from Moscow. Kremlin. Putin, a sycophantic state television show that focuses on everyday aspects of the Russian president’s life, had to go in search of material.
“We will follow events together with you,” moderator Pavel Zarubin whispered from a room where Putin was preparing to chair a meeting with senior security officials. But the only footage of Putin’s remarks that got on the air was his greeting to the ashen security officers, to which Zarubin waxed lyrical in a voiceover as the camera zoomed in on National Guard chief Viktor Zolotov’s clenched fists.
“Here are some close-ups, as we say on TV,” Zarubin said. “Of course, these images will be carefully examined and [the officials’] Faces are scrutinized closely. We will learn the results of the meeting later.”
Some pro-Wagner military bloggers continued to defend Prigozhin and blame other nationalists for their hypocrisy. “I can’t understand those who just a few days ago were angrily jerking off Wagner PMC – and now suddenly shouting when, how and where the traitors should be executed,” said Alexander Pelevin, a vocal supporter of the attack on Ukraine, cheering Wagner long, he wrote on his Telegram channel.
But other pro-war media outlets were already rushing to distance themselves from Prigozhin and show loyalty to the Kremlin.
A Russian political adviser recorded a statement on camera saying he worked for Prigozhin until last year but now thought it was “vital” to speak out, and called the warlord an “executioner” who has none just cause, but simply thirst for power.
Andrei Kolesnikov, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the regime was undoubtedly weakened by the incident, but the Putin government still appears to be better than the alternative.
“Ordinary Russians, even if they want change, when they realize that those changes don’t lead to better things, will prefer the usual dish on their menu – Putin,” he said.
“Yes, Putin and his regime have shown weakness, but when the alternative has not been convincing, the best strategy is to support Putin or emulate his support.”
In fact, many Russians said they were ready to continue with the episode.
“In my environment nobody pays attention to the news and just lives their life,” said a young woman from St. Petersburg. “Of course, when Prigozhin went to Moscow, it was nerve-wracking for the people. . . But to be honest, this horror has been going on for a year and a half and it’s impossible to live in a state of depression, fear and dread all the time.”
Another young woman – a resident of the Voronezh region – admitted that there were “awkward” moments during the episode. She had been standing at her kitchen counter when she suddenly saw a military helicopter flying directly over a neighboring house. A neighbor sent video of a helicopter with armed men leaning out of the door.
Still, she poked fun at those who panicked and recalled the story of someone who went out and piled up buckwheat. “What are you going to do – build barricades out of this buckwheat?”
She added: “If you go into hysteria, then what? You go to a psychiatric hospital? We have to live somehow.”