The march towards Moscow was not intended to overthrow Vladimir Putin, but to prevent Wagner from being “destroyed”. After two days of secrets and speculation, Yevgeny Prigozhin breaks his silence with an 11-minute audio broadcast on his Telegram channels, revealing the truth about Saturday’s mutiny that for several hours seemed to bring Russia to the brink of civil war.
Russia, Prigozhin’s reasons in an 11-minute audio
However, it is not yet clear what really happened and what the consequences will be. Evidence of this is the fact that Prigozhin himself continues to be charged by the Prosecutor General’s Office with armed insurrection, and at the same time his company has “normally” resumed its activities at the headquarters in St. Petersburg and in several other cities where recruitment is carried out. The Wagner boss also gave no information about where he is at the moment. One of the biggest question marks after the Kremlin announced on Saturday night that Prigozhin would go to Minsk on the basis of the agreement negotiated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
ANSA agency
The New York Times writes it, citing intelligence sources (ANSA)
Some Telegram channels and the Kyiv Post wrote that he had already been spotted in a hotel in the Belarusian capital, the Green City Hotel. However, management contacted by Russian TV Rtvi said it could not confirm the news. Lukashenko’s press service also announced that they had no information about it. Prigozhin repeated the official version of the Russian authorities, saying that it was Lukashenko who brokered the ceasefire and offered a solution “for the continuation of Wagner’s operations in a legitimate place of jurisdiction”.
ANSA. it
The front pages of the main foreign newspapers (ANSA)
Therefore, Belarus is not explicitly mentioned. While Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov assured that the Wagner fighters could continue their activities at least in Mali and the Central African Republic, without naming Ukraine. It remains a mystery how the insurgent mercenaries – some 25,000 – captured the strategically important city of Rostov in the south of the country two days ago without a shot being fired, and then ascended hundreds of kilometers across Russia towards Moscow almost undisturbed. The official version says that the authorities wanted to avoid bloodshed. Other sources put forward a more conspiratorial explanation: that is, the lack of resistance to Wagner, guaranteed by forces directly dependent on the Kremlin, such as the domestic intelligence agency FSB and the National Guard, would have served the purpose of allowing Prigozhin to score in the clash with the army of Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, with whom not even Putin would have idyllic relations.
Certainly, Shoigu, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, and other Defense Ministry officials remain the characters Prigozhin hates most, especially after private militias, including Wagner, were ordered to sign contracts to comply with Ministry orders within the first week to subdue July. “I and the other Wagner officers,” said Prigozhin, “refused and wanted to lay down our arms in Rostov on June 30. But then they bombed us, and then we went on the March of Justice to Moscow to protest.” The advance was stopped 200 kilometers from the capital in order “not to shed Russian blood,” Prigozhin repeated, thanking Lukashenko again for the solution found. However, according to other sources, the real mediator would have been Alexei Dyumin, governor of the Tula region, who enjoys the trust of both President Vladimir Putin and Prigozhin. And that’s now seen as a favorite for the post of new secretary of defense to replace Shoigu, albeit not in the short term.