The factional struggle that Vladimir Putin ignited within his own ranks finally erupted at a crucial moment in his war against Ukraine. Wagner’s boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was born 61 years ago in Saint Petersburg, crossed his personal Rubicon this Friday in the spiral of his confrontation with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The businessman has rebelled against the Kremlin with a huge military column that has taken the capital of Russia’s Rostov-on-Don region and is reportedly heading for poorly defended Moscow. The city is shaking: With almost all troops concentrated ahead of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the authorities have declared the state of an anti-terrorist operation in the Russian capital.
“Our response will be harsh, the rebels will be punished,” Putin promised in a message to the nation released Saturday morning. The Russian President has promised violence, although this time the enemy will find refuge not in a Ukrainian city, but in a Russian one. “Decisive measures are being taken to stabilize the situation in Rostov-on-Don. “It remains difficult,” said the President. “This is a slap in the back for our country and our people,” lamented the President.
In this image from a video released by the Prigozhin press service on Friday, May 5, 2023, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin stands in front of several bodies lying on the ground in an undisclosed location. The owner of Russia’s private military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on Friday threatened to withdraw Wagner’s forces from the besieged Ukrainian city of Bakhmut next week, accusing the Russian military command of depriving the group of ammunition. Photo: Prigozhin press service (AP).
Putin called for unity at the crucial moment of his invasion of Ukraine and accused the businessman of “exorbitant ambitions”. “Everything that weakens the country must be pushed aside,” Putin added. Moscow has canceled all events planned for the next few days. The Kremlin released a video on Thursday in which the president congratulated the youth day, while Prigozhin claimed to be leading a more than 50-kilometer military column towards the capital.
For its part, Kiev, which estimates that Moscow has about 400,000 Russian troops stationed in its country, welcomes this instability, which prevails within the borders of the invading country and may divert attention from Putin’s plans on Ukrainian territory. “Everything has just begun in Russia,” said this Saturday Mikhailo Podoliak, the chief adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, referred to the power-sharing that is rocking the neighboring country. Podoliak believes it is impossible for either side to get away scot-free.
Counterteroristic opera Prigozina (#Вагнер) in the area of Rosії вже призвела до захоплення Ростова, nizki Federalnих трас, штабів Півdennogo окру I like it so much «#СВО». I have settled in the Russian capital and now I am affected by the Supreme Court clerk #ФСБNats_onalnogo… pic.twitter.com/cYnzl91pvC
— Mihaylo Podolyak (@Podolyak_M) June 24, 2023
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Podoliak understands that one of the two parties, the Kremlin or Prigozhin, must be defeated. “The division of elites is too obvious” and “someone has to lose,” Podoliak stressed on his Twitter profile in a message in which he also described the occupation of Rostov, military headquarters and some streets thanks to the “anti-terrorist operation”. emphasized the boss of Wagner. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not address the conflict between the head of the mercenary company and Moscow in his daily address on Friday evening. “We’re watching,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry account tweeted on Friday night, when the National Border Guard posted a packet of popcorn on Telegram with an expectant smiley face. Ukraine’s main allies against the Russian invasion have reported that they are monitoring the situation on the Russian border.
Quarrel with Shoigu
“We have arrived here [Rostov del Don]. We want them to hand us over to the Chief of Staff [Valeri Guerásimov] Ya Shoigu. “Although they do not appear, here we are, blockading the city of Rostov and going to Moscow,” Prigozhin threatened. The Russian prosecutor’s office has opened a case against the businessman for the crime of rebellion. According to Article 279 of the Russian Criminal Code, Wagner’s boss could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
The last myth of Putin, who created his aura as president around the social peace achieved after the fall of the USSR and the turbulent 1990s, collapsed with the Prigozhin coup. Three decades after the constitutional crisis that ended with the bombing of the White House, the seat of the Russian parliament, the businessman took to the streets with his tanks to demand the surrender of Shoigu, whom he said in a tweet broadcast this Thursday Embassy accused from his social networks that he had attacked his troops in the rear.
Prigozhin also asserted that his forces shot down a Russian helicopter. “They shot at us, and we shot them down,” the businessman said in a video released by his press service, in which he, surrounded by his personal guard, chatted with Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Evkurov. “You attack innocent civilians, you destroyed a bus with people on it,” Wagner’s owner said in front of the soldier’s blank gaze. Prigozhin’s mercenaries took over Rostov-on-Don’s military facilities, including the air base. The governor of the region, Vasili Golubiov, called on its citizens to “refrain from traveling to the city center and if possible not to leave the house”.
The UK believes that Russia faces its biggest internal challenge in years, that the army’s level of loyalty will be crucial to the development of the insurgency, and that Prigozhin’s goal is to almost certainly reach Moscow, as it did interpreted by the British Ministry of Defense in its daily report on the war. Known animosity between the businessman and the Kremlin has escalated into a “military confrontation,” and the passivity with which some Russian soldiers have accepted the mercenary uprising suggests they accepted it, the source adds. “In the next few hours, the loyalty of the Russian security forces, and especially the National Guard, will be crucial to the development of the crisis. “This represents the greatest challenge for the Russian state in recent times,” the report concludes.
Indeed, military support for Prigozhin will be crucial in this crisis. One of his great allies in the high command, General Sergei Surovikin, has asked Wagner to lower his arms. “I urge you to stop doing this. The enemy is just waiting for the internal political situation in our country to deteriorate. “You can’t play the enemy’s game in these difficult times,” the general said in a video to Wagner’s boss. Known as the Butcher of Syria, Surovikin had been Prigozhin’s player in the turbulent changes in military leadership over the past few months and, upon his dismissal as sole commander of the offensive, was appointed liaison between the Ministry of Defense and Wagner.
The confrontation between Shoigu and Prigozhin ended this week. After months of insults and veiled allegations that he left him unarmed in the Battle of Bakhmut, the businessman recorded a new video this Thursday in which he accused the minister of lying about the “successful” defense on the Zaporizhia front . “A huge amount of territory has been lost. “Three to four times more soldiers died than stated in the documents,” denounced Wagner’s boss.
Meanwhile, the war on Ukrainian territory continues. Two civilians died in Kiev in the early hours of Saturday morning after the capital and its environs were again attacked by Russian missiles.
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