“A stab in the back for personal ambition.” This is how Russian President Vladimir Putin defined the challenge launched by his former ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, the powerful founder of the Wagner Group.
The private army of mercenaries who have been fighting on the side of the Russian army since the start of the invasion of Ukraine are rebelled against the Russian military high command and advancedor this saturday into the interior of Russiain the direction of Moscow, staying 200 km from the capital.
On Saturday night Prigozhin announced that agreed to halt the advance of his troops and “de-escalate the situation” during talks he had with the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.
The leader of the Wagner Group said his troops would return to their bases to avoid a bloodbath on both sides.
Lukashenko’s press service assured that the negotiations were carried out with the agreement of Vladimir Putin.
Before stopping your progress, a huge military column of the Wagner Group took the capital of the Russian region of Rostov-on-Don, an important enclave because it houses the headquarters of the Russian command involved in repelling the Ukrainian counter-offensives in southern Ukraine.
In a speech addressed to the nation this Saturday, Putin assured that facesban to an armed riot, and accused the head of the Wagner mercenary group of treason and threatened a harsh response.
The close ties of Prigozhin with the Kremlin and Putin himself go back years.
In fact, the Wagner Group is believed to have defended Russian interests in Syria and Libya, as well as Sudan or the Central African Republic.
Before Prigozhin ordered his troops to return to their bases, the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin, issued a statement on Saturday announcing that “an anti-terrorist operations regime has been declared in Moscow” and that on Monday it would be “non-working day” to “minimize risks”.
“City services are on high alert,” he said.
Overthrow Russian military leaders
In recent months, Prigozhin has repeatedly accused Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ukraine Army Chief Valery Gerasimov of incompetence and deliberately de-supply Wagner units fighting in the Ukraine.
Wagner’s boss proclaimed that the “evil” in Russia’s military leadership must stop and promised to overthrow to Russian military leaders.
The straw that seems to have broken the camel’s back is the accusation that the Russian army launched a deadly missile attack against Wagner’s troops in the rear of the Ukrainian war.
The Russian government denied the accusations and opened a criminal file against Prigozhin for “call to rebellion”, a crime that carries prison terms of between 12 and 20 years. It is unclear whether this accusation will stand after negotiations facilitated by the Belarusian government.
This Saturday riot police and national guard they carried out raids on the office of the mercenary group in St. Petersburg.
A local media outlet said that masked men armed with automatic rifles they had taken up positions on a bridge near a hotel and restaurant linked to Wagner.
The mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said they were taking what he called anti-terrorist measures.
Yevgeny Prigozhin confirmed local media reports that he had been found a large amount of cash during raids.
According to Prigozhin, these are the funds to cover compensation payments to deceased Wagner fighters and other expenses.
“Wagner has been operating for the last 10 years using only cash, as agreed in our contract. He fully complies with it, ”Prigozhin said in a message on Telegram.
He did not provide details on the exact amount seized, although Russian media speak of $48 million.
The internal struggle, red hot
The new clash between the government and the mercenaries supposes a major escalation of infighting inside Russia with unforeseeable consequences.
In his opening remarks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the events as a sign of Moscow’s “obvious weakness.”
He said that until now, Russia had used propaganda to mask the stupidity of his government, but now there was so much chaos that no lie could hide it.
How it all started?
Prigozhin claimed that “a large number” of his fighters were killed by a Russian army attack on a Wagner camp, though he provided no evidence to support this claim.
Russia’s state broadcaster Channel 1 interrupted regular programming to broadcast an “urgent news bulletin.”
The announcement recapitulated earlier statements about Prigozhin and the Wagner Group, saying that the mercenaries’ leader’s video of the alleged Russian attack on his troops is false and that the Russian Defense Ministry denies attacking the group.
However, Prigozhin was adamant in his decision to counterattack.
“Those who killed our boys and took tens of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers [en la guerra en Ucrania] they will be punished“, he sentenced.
“I ask you not to resist. Anyone who does will be considered a threat and destroyed. This applies to any checkpoint and aviation on our way, ”he threatened.
And I add: “ANDThis is not a military coup, but a march by Justice. Our actions do not interfere with the troops in any way.”
Critical of the invasion of Ukraine
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that “all Prigozhin’s reports spread on social media” about the Russian attacks on the Wagner camps “are not true and are an informative tease“.
This comes after a video was published in May in which the Wagner leader, surrounded by the bodies of his troops, reprimanded the Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, as well as the Chief of the General Staff, Valerii Gerasimovfor not supplying them with enough ammunition.
And this Friday Prigozhin asserted that the war in Ukraine began “so that Shoigu could become a marshal.”
“The Ministry of Defense is trying to mislead the public, mislead the president, and tell a story that there was a crazy aggression by Ukraine; that, together with the entire NATO bloc, Ukraine was planning to attack us“he claimed.
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