Evgeni Prigozhin’s voice is backHe spoke for 11 minutes in an audio message, explaining the reasons behind the “march of justice” he threatened to take with his men to Moscow on Saturday. The Wagner Group fighters covered 780 kilometers in less than twenty-four hours to prevent the Ministry of Defense from destroying the company by forcing it to become part of the regular army. Another reason for the frantic rush to Moscow, said Prigozhin, which has been a rumor as of Saturday night, is to demonstrate how Russian soldiers could have marched toward Kiev if they hadn’t been part of an army marred by bureaucracy and corruption is held back. With Wagner, Prigozhin said clearly and fieryly, “the operation could have lasted a day, which shows the level of organization the Russian army should follow.”
According to the leader of the mercenaries, he was supported by the regular soldiers he met on the way from Rostov-on-Don to two hundred kilometers from the gates of Moscow. However, according to some Russian media, only a few soldiers were dispatched to stop the march, and many were recalled to defend the capital while the Kremlin continued negotiations. The company halted when it became clear that moving forward would require “the shedding of Russian blood” and because the march did not want to be anti-authority. With an eleven-minute shortened voice message, Prigozhin canceled, sweetening his trip to Moscow to tell the Russians he was on their side and to tell Putin he remained one of his. He gets back in line, but he doesn’t regret it, he doesn’t apologize, he just wants to explain that his march was nothing more than a demonstration, he didn’t want to overthrow the President. He wanted to prove the army’s incompetence, and he says he did.
Where Evgeni Prigozhin is is unknown, but pamphlets in support of the mercenaries have appeared along the path taken by Wagner’s men, including some that read “Wagner, we are with you” or “We are not 25,000, we are in millions” referring to the number of mercenaries who have moved out. One inscription is more curious than others: “Prigozhin is the conscience of Russia”. The action of the mercenaries liked.
Vladimir Putin also appeared in the evening with a speech that his spokesman Dmitry Peskov described as “without exaggeration” crucial for “the future of Russia”. The President spoke for a few minutes and said that the mutiny had made the country more united: “Any insurrection or blackmail is doomed to failure, an armed uprising would have been crushed anyway.” He did not forgive Prigozhin, but gave Wagner a choice: sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, go to Belarus, or go home. After the speech, he began a meeting with the chiefs of the security forces, including Sergei Shoigu, the minister whom Prigozhin was seeking to remove for being corrupt, bureaucratic and incompetent.
Putin stayed in the Kremlin, Shoigu on defense, Wagner still exists (according to their leader, only 1 percent agreed to join the regular army), Prigozhin resumed his speech: he is the portrait of Russia before the march, the story of one A nation where incredible things can happen and at the same time act like nothing happened. Putin’s speech was a turning point, a confirmation that he wants to get back to Ukraine, to the war, and to show that he wants to move on. The Russian President has created a system of power that can withstand the blow of a march on Moscow, he has proved weak to his international allies – he has urged them one by one to report the situation and likely gauge readiness to intervene – , but he also checked the solidity of his circle’s support, the oligarchs, the men who control important state companies like Gazprom and are now arming new mercenary militias.
Prigozhin has gained fame in Russia, for many Russians the march was the caravan of an unforgettable circus with photos and purchases of gadgets from the Wagner group. For the past few days, Prigozhin has been speaking more like a politician than a fighter, using terms that are reminiscent of the great evils of Putin’s power, such as the corruption to which the mercenary has always belonged. He is not an outsider, he is a product of Putinism, integrated into the Kremlin’s power and therefore, according to the President, the subject of a still-negotiable relationship.