A betrayal without consequences: that was the uprising of the Wagner group in Russia Canada starts investigation into the “Titan” tragedy

Nuclear energy Russia is shaken by an unprecedented power struggle. The conflict between President Vladimir Putin and the head of the notorious Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, escalated into an armed uprising on Saturday.

Prigozhin’s units took control of military installations in the south of the country, near the border with Ukraine. An armed column from Wagner set out for Moscow and made progress – but, according to Prigozhin, were sent back to their camps on Saturday night to avoid bloodshed.

“Our columns are turning and moving in the opposite direction to the camps,” he said in a voice message published by his press service on Telegram. So far, “not a drop of our fighters’ blood has been spilled,” Prigozhin said. “This is the time when blood can be shed.” That’s why it’s time to flip the columns.

The press office of Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko had previously announced that after discussions with Putin, he had persuaded Prigozhin to give up. Prigozhin did not explicitly mention Lukashenko in his voice message.

At first it was not clear whether any concessions were made or promised to Prigozhin to stop the advance on Moscow.

It was also initially unclear whether Prigozhin’s mercenaries would withdraw from the military facilities they occupied in the city of Rostov-on-Don. The headquarters of the Russian Southern Military District is located there – a command center for the war against Ukraine. There was initially no response from the Kremlin to the announced halt to the advance.

“March of Justice”

The power struggle between Prigozhin and the Russian army command, which had been smoldering for months, escalated on Saturday night. The 62-year-old accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering an attack on a Wagner military camp. The unit had fought alongside regular Russian troops in Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine and was instrumental in the capture of the city of Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk Oblast. However, there has been disagreement over powers and ammunition stocks for months.

After the alleged attack on the Wagner camp – which the Defense Ministry promptly denied – Prigozhin announced a “march of justice” to punish those responsible in Moscow. Whatever he succeeded: in the end, according to Prigozhin, the heads of his units were only about 200 kilometers from the Russian capital.

The several thousand Wagner fighters have been one of the most important groups in Moscow’s offensive war against Ukraine, which lasted exactly 16 months on Saturday. Prigozhin has long accused the Russian Defense Ministry of misguided tactics and poor leadership. So far, his criticism has mainly focused on Defense Minister Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov – he left out Putin. Now, however, he also accused the head of the Kremlin of being gravely mistaken. It was initially unclear what effects the inner-Russian conflict would have on the course of the war.

Prigozhin was previously considered a confidant of Putin. So far he has been able to afford criticism for which others would have been punished long ago. On Saturday morning, however, Putin described his ex-confidant Prigozhin as a “traitor”. “This is a boost to our country and our people,” Putin said. Anyone who takes up arms and organizes an armed uprising will be punished, he said in his TV speech. The authorities have been investigating the oligarch, who got rich from government contracts, since Friday evening and threatened him with a prison sentence of 12 to 20 years. It is still unclear whether the criminal case will be stopped after Prigozhin announced that he would withdraw his troops.

At noon, the mercenary boss accused Putin of completely misjudging the situation. “The president is seriously mistaken,” he said in a voice message on his Telegram channel. He described his own role with the words: “We are patriots of our homeland.” Prigozhin announced that he would end “corruption, lies and bureaucracy” in Russia. The mercenary boss, who claims to have some 25,000 fighters at his disposal, openly challenged Putin for the first time. The Russian armed forces have about 1.5 million members.

Moscow citizens should stay at home

Ahead of Prigozhin’s announcement to halt the advance on Moscow, the Russian capital’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin urged people to stay at home and declared Monday a non-working day for security reasons. “An anti-terrorist state of emergency has been declared in Moscow. The situation is difficult,” Sobyanin admitted on his Telegram channel. It’s about “minimizing the risks”, there may be road closures.

Meanwhile, the ruler of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has sided with Putin and announced that he would send his troops to crush the uprising. Like the Wagner units until recently, Chechen fighters are deployed against Ukraine alongside the regular Russian army. Kadyrov and Prigozhin, who are known for their brutal leadership style, have long been considered opponents.

Zelenskyj’s answer

In Ukraine, recent developments in the neighboring country are closely followed. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed: “Anyone who chooses the path of evil destroys himself.” The armed uprising is a clear sign of Putin’s weakness, Zelenskyj wrote on Twitter. Russia has long used propaganda to cover up its weakness and the stupidity of its government. And now the chaos is so great that no lie can hide it.” In the evening, Selenskyj followed and called for Putin’s overthrow. “The longer this person is in the Kremlin, the greater the catastrophe,” Selenskyj said every night in his video message – but this time in Russian and addressed to the Russians Putin is no longer in Moscow and in hiding.

The Kremlin denied that. “Putin works in the Kremlin,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday, according to the state news agency Tass. Earlier there were rumors that Putin may have left for St Petersburg.

Governments around the world are monitoring the situation

In the West, developments in Russia were followed closely. According to a government spokesperson, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was “continuously informed”. He also consulted with US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. A crisis team met at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) spoke to her colleagues from the other G7 countries about the situation.

All without consequences

Saturday evening it became clear that the uprising in Russia would have no consequences. The Kremlin announced that the criminal case against the head of Russia’s private army Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been dropped for armed rebellion against the military leadership. Prigozhin will go to Belarus himself, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine continued

Despite the escalation in Russia, fighting in Ukraine continued. Three people were killed and eleven injured in a Russian rocket attack on the capital Kiev on Saturday night, the local prosecutor’s office said. The attack, which claimed many lives, was one of the most serious Russian attacks on Kiev in recent times. Since the beginning of the Russian offensive war against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Kiev has been repeatedly attacked with missiles and drones.

In the eastern region of Donetsk, the Ukrainian army claims to have gained ground. “The eastern grouping of troops today launched an offensive in several sectors at once,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar wrote on Telegram. The Russian troops around the city of Bakhmut were pushed back. Attacks by Russian units on other front sections in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions were repelled. The information provided by the warring parties cannot be independently verified.

(kma with material from sda/dpa)