09:14 Why did Prigozhin stop his advance 200 km from Moscow?
The head of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led an armed rebellion against the Russian military leadership, announced Saturday that his fighters would return to their bases after approaching 200 kilometers from Moscow, to avoid bloodshed. In this way, after an agreement with Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, everything seems to return to normal.
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09:05 Let’s remember, who is Yevgeny Prigozhin?
The former criminal and businessman that Putin admired, reports Gonzalo Aragonés, correspondent for La Vanguardia in Moscow
Yevgueni Prigozhin and his company of mercenaries Wagner, due to their secrecy and their support for the Kremlin, were a kind of legendary characters respected in Russia among the sectors closest to power. But it won’t be like that anymore. A few hours after starting his military rebellion, getting his name erased. The city council of Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, announced that it was going to remove ads about the Wagner Group from the city’s metro. In Vladimir, 180 kilometers from Moscow, a video broadcast by the local Pro Gorod channel showed officials on a crane taking off a poster asking for volunteers to join this private army and fight in Ukraine.
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08:55 Lukashenko, the President of Belarus, the mediator between Russia and the Wagner Group
Minsk said it had put on the table an “absolutely beneficial and acceptable option to resolve the situation, with security guarantees for Wagner’s fighters.” According to the Belarusian press, Putin and Lukashenko spoke by phone again on Saturday night and the Kremlin chief thanked his Belarusian counterpart for negotiating with the Wagner leader.
“The Belarusian president informed the Russian president in detail about the outcome of the negotiations with the Wagner leadership” and Putin thanked him for the “work done,” reported the Pul Pervogo channel, linked to the Belarusian Presidency.
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08:45 Prigozhin led the march for justice to Moscow, accusing the military leadership of the death of Russian soldiers
Prigozhin, who had denied wanting to stage a coup, crossed the Russian border into the Rostov region from Ukraine with 25,000 men overnight, he said, where Russian forces had allegedly attacked a Wagner group camp with missiles, to start a “march for justice” to Moscow.
The reason, he added, is the “chaos” caused by the military leadership in the war in the neighboring country and the death of “more than 100,000 Russian soldiers” because of it.
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08:35 Let’s remember, what is the Wagner group?
The Wagner Group is a private army of mercenaries that has been fighting alongside the Russian regular army in the Ukraine, where there are estimated to be tens of thousands of Wagner troops.
In fact, Prigozhin’s men played a very important role in the battle to seize the city of Bahamut, against the Ukrainian forces.
Therefore, they are a private military company, which the Russian government has tried to take steps to exert control over.
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08:25 Rostov-on-Don is back to normal
The city of Rostov-on-Don, practically bordering the Ukrainian state, was the starting point of the Wagner group in its armed rebellion against the Russian government. Now, more than 24 hours later, the city begins to return to normal traffic, as most of the tanks deployed by Prigozhin’s men have left.
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08:15 In what scenario is Russia now?
Several experts who follow the war in Ukraine from the West, including some Russian exiles, warned yesterday that Yevgeni Prigozhin’s insurrection may have triggered – or simply accelerated – the process of “implosion” of the Vladimir Putin regime and of the Russian state as we know it in the last decades. Some even point to a scenario of civil war like the one that broke out after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.
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08:04 Russia will also not retaliate against the other fighters of the Wagner group
The spokesman for the Kremlin presidency, Dmitri Peskov, stated yesterday afternoon that, like Prigozhin, there will be no criminal consequences, he added that the other soldiers who took part in the mutiny will not be prosecuted either due to their merits in The front. “The fighters who rebelled will be able to sign contracts with the Defense Ministry,” he said.
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07:57 The pro-Russian leader “Strelkov” does not trust the pacts with Prigozhin
The Russian Igor Guirkin, alias “Strelkov”, leader of the pro-Russian uprising in Donbas in 2014 and one of Prigozhin’s biggest detractors, wrote on Telegram that he distrusts the “agreements” that were reached between the authorities and Wagner. “I hope I end up being wrong”, he demanded, adding that in his opinion “nothing has been done at the moment”.
In Guirkin’s opinion, what happened in Russia was not an armed “rebellion”, but a real “coup”.
“If this has finished or not, we will know it soon. Maybe tomorrow”, he concluded during the night of yesterday.
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07:48 Wagner puts Putin on the ropes
With the tension over and an agreement mediated by Lukashenko reached, the Wagner Group began to withdraw its forces from Rostov.
According to the Kommersant newspaper, residents of the city came to say goodbye to the “Wagnerites” with applause and taking photos with the military equipment that was leaving the city. Prigozhin had boasted that he had seized control of Rostov “without a shot.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry will use Western countries that do not use this crisis “to achieve their Russophobic goals.” According to Putin, “Russia is waging a very difficult battle for its future” in Ukraine and against “the Western military, economic and information machine.”
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07:40 The Baltic countries reinforce their borders after the chaos in Russia
The hectic events of the last hours in Russia are observed from the Baltic with a mixture of concern and schadenfreude, or joy at the misfortune of others.
Although for the moment they do not see an immediate threat against their countries, the governments of Poland and the Baltic republics of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, as well as Finland and Sweden, which, unlike their neighbors, are still in the NATO waiting room, They are closely monitoring the situation in collaboration with their partners in the military organization and took steps yesterday to reinforce their eastern border.
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07:33 The conditions of the pact with Wagner were rebelled
The Kremlin revealed some of the terms of the deal with Wagner reached thanks to Lukashenko.
The head of the group will move to Belarus and the authorities will close the criminal case opened against him. “The criminal case that was opened against him will be closed and he (Prigozhin) will go to Belarus,” Peskov said. He further added that the other “Wagnerites” who took part in the mutiny due to their “merits at the front” will not be prosecuted either.
Meanwhile, fighters who did not rebel will be able to sign contracts with the Defense Ministry, he said.
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