The aggressive rhetoric of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the private mercenary company Wagner, against Russian military commanders has gone too far. This Friday he accused the Russian Army of attacking the camp of its fighters, encouraged a rebellion and assured that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who is very close to Putin, would be arrested. Hours later, the Federal Security Service (FSB, formerly KGB) accused him of armed rebellion.
The Russian Anti-Terrorism Committee claimed that “the statements released on behalf of Yevgeny Prigozhin had no foundation” and announced that the FSB had opened a criminal case against the controversial Wagner chief for calling for “armed rebellion.”
Hours earlier, Prigozhin had accused the Army of attacking the camps of its fighters, without fully explaining his words, and called for an end to the “evil” of the military leadership.
“Those who killed our boys today, those who killed thousands and tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, will be punished,” Prigozhin announced on Telegram, where he asked the forces under the Ministry of Defense not to resist Wagner because, otherwise Otherwise, they will be “deleted immediately”.
“The command committee of the Wagner Group has decided that those who have military responsibility in the country should be detained,” Yevgeni Prigozhin said in an audio message posted on his Telegram channel. He also asked that there be no “resistance” to his troops and affirmed that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu would be “arrested.” He also accused him of ordering to hide 2,000 bodies of his mercenaries in a morgue in southern Russia.
After encouraging a “rebellion” against the military commanders, he claimed to have 25,000 men and called on the Russians, especially the soldiers, to join them. “We are 25,000 and we are going to determine why chaos reigns in the country (…) Our strategic reserves are the entire army and the entire country,” he said before continuing to call “anyone who wants to join us” to “end the mess”.
Wagner’s men spearheaded months of Russia’s offensive to take the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. During those combats, he harshly criticized Shoigu and the head of the Army, Valeri Gerasimov, for not sending enough ammunition to his men.
After opening the criminal case against him, Prigozhin said that the desire to end the reigning “chaos” is not a military coup. “It is a march for justice. Our actions will not interfere with (the activity) of the troops” in Ukraine, he assured.
According to Prigozhin, after “dealing with” those who “annihilate” Russian soldiers, Wagner’s fighters will “return to the front.” “Justice will be restored in the troops, and after that in all of Russia,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov assured the Interfax agency that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been informed. “The necessary measures are being taken,” he assured.
