Evguéni Prigojine seems to have crossed the red line. Confusion reigned this Friday evening on the situation in Moscow when the Russian security services (FSB) announced that they had opened an investigation for “call for armed mutiny” after the call of the leader of the Wagner group to rise up against the command soldier, whom he accuses of having bombarded his men.
“They carried out strikes, missile strikes, on our rear camps. Very many of our fighters were killed,” he said in an audio message. Prigojine promised to “respond” to these attacks ordered, according to him, by the Russian Minister of Defense, stressing that he was not pleading for a “military coup” but that he wanted a “march for justice “. “The Wagner group’s command committee has decided that those who have military responsibility for the country must be stopped,” also said the boss of the paramilitary group, calling for no “resistance” to be offered to his troops and assuring that the Minister of Defense, Sergei Choigou, would be “stopped”.
Prigojine, a past master in the art of provocation and reversals, drove the point home by claiming to have “25,000” fighters and inviting the Russians to “join” them. “We are 25,000 and we are going to determine why chaos reigns in the country (…) Our strategic reserves are the whole army and the whole country”, he declared, calling for “an end to the disorder “.
Putin informed of all events
The Russian Defense Ministry hit back in a statement, saying Prigozhin’s accusations of alleged strikes “do not correspond to reality and are a provocation”. Russian President Vladimir Putin “is informed of all the events around (Evgeni) Prigojine. The necessary measures are being taken”, indicated for his part the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, quoted by the TASS agency.
This new spectacular exchange between the two entities at the heart of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine once again exposes the deep tensions within Russian forces linked to the Ukrainian conflict.