Power struggle in Russia escalates: Prigozhin declares war on Putin

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Events in Russia are turning. Longtime ruler Vladimir Putin (70) has thrown countless critics in jail since he came to power – he first became president in 2000. Putin made Russia a de facto one-party state and repeatedly purged the Kremlin’s circle of power. Now Putin offers armed resistance for the first time – from ‘own’ fighters on the Ukrainian front.

For the first time, there is an armed uprising against Putin’s power. Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, 62, accused Moscow’s military leadership of attacking his private army units on Friday and threatened countermeasures. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (68) had Wagner’s camps in the hinterland shelled with artillery, helicopters and rockets. Prigozhin said this in a voice message distributed by his press service on Telegram on Friday. Since then, the wires have been running hot in the Kremlin.

Armored cars drove into Moscow at night. In front of the Duma is an infantry fighting vehicle. “Security measures in Moscow have been tightened, all key facilities, government agencies and transport infrastructure facilities have been placed under increased protection,” the state news agency Tass reported.

Kiev «observed»

The Russian state media is still largely silent on the events. “President Putin has been briefed on all events related to Prigozhin,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, 55, said, according to Tass. “The necessary measures will be taken,” Peskow said. In contrast, the informal channels in the country through which Russians obtain information are hot.

The main channel Rossiya 1 also shows the usual program, while news is circulating on social media that Wagner fighters have said goodbye to their relatives in the past 24 hours and told them to watch the TV news. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry responded on Twitter with the pithy words: “We’re watching.”

The Moscow defense ministry reported late in the evening that Kiev had already taken advantage of “Prigozhin’s provocation”. “The Kiev regime is using Prigozhin’s provocation to disrupt the situation.” At Bakhmut, Kiev adds two new brigades to the “offensive starting lines”. Bakhmut, that was a Russian conquest by Prigozhin’s mercenaries.

Nervous Russian generals

Divide and impera. Discord in Russia does not harm Kiev. Even the highest Russian military circles seem nervous. Sergei Surovikin, 55, commander-in-chief of Moscow’s troops in Ukraine until last January, issued an urgent appeal to Wagner on Telegram: The mercenaries “should follow the orders of the Russian president, stop their columns and return to their permanent locations” .

In the conflict between Wagner’s private army and the Ministry of Defense, Surovikin, the deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, clearly sides with the power apparatus in Moscow: “The enemy is just waiting for our domestic political situation to deteriorate – you can do that I hereby urge the enemy not to give the country hard times,” the general appealed to Prigozhin’s men.

Meanwhile, Prigozhin also called on the National Guard to switch sides, and a Telegram channel loyal to Wagner reported that the mercenary commanders remain loyal to the “most promising politician”: “Neither Moscow nor the Suroviks will be able to stop what has started. “

“Call for Civil War”

Events in Russia followed one another on Friday, until the powerful Russian domestic secret service FSB reported late in the evening that Prigozhin was under investigation for an attempted military coup. treason! The National Counterterrorism Committee announced on Friday evening that Prigozhin had called for a fight against Moscow’s military leadership.

The FSB accuses Prigozhin of “calling for civil war”. Prigozhin’s words were a “stab in the back of Russian soldiers,” Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted the FSB as saying. This called on Wagner fighters not to carry out Prigozhin’s “criminal and treacherous orders and to take measures to arrest him”. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office in Moscow, Prigozhin faces 12 to 20 years in prison.

Prigozhin promises revenge

For his part, Prigozhin said he had 25,000 men under his command who would now go on the offensive: “Anyone who tries to resist us will be considered a threat and will be killed immediately.”

According to Prigozhin, Shoigu came specifically to Rostov-on-Don, a metropolis near the Ukrainian border, to lead the operation against Wagner. “At 9 p.m. he fled – cowardly as a woman – not to explain why he was launching helicopters and launching missile strikes to kill our boys,” Prigozhin said. “This beast will be stopped.”

Apparently a lot of dead

Armored vehicles drove into Rostov-on-Don, about 1,000 kilometers southeast of Moscow, late on Friday. The media reported roadblocks. According to the BBC, if there is a threat, the order is given to shoot.

Prigozhin spoke of a “large number” of deaths in the action apparently directed by Shoigu, but did not specify the exact number of mercenaries reportedly killed in the attack.

On Saturday evening, Prigozhin denied the accusation of an armed uprising. “This is not an armed uprising, but a march for justice,” he said in a voice message on Telegram. Wagner’s actions would not harm the activities of Russian troops in Ukraine.

Source: Blick