Yevgeni Prigozhin, the director of the mercenary company Wagner, published a video on Tuesday’s victory day, in which he has been interpreted as questioning Putin’s ability to judge.
According to the US think tank ISW, the head of the Russian mercenary company Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin verbally attacked the president Vladimir Putin responded with his video published on Tuesday.
According to ISW (you switch to another service) Prigozhin was probably referring to Putin when he spoke of a “happy grandfather” who “thinks he’s good.” Prigozhin also rhetorically asked what Russia and future generations should do and how Russia can win the war if “grandfather” turns out to be “a complete asshole”.
ISW bases its information on Meduza, a Russian news site operating in exile to publish a video (you will go to another service).
Prigozhin has already criticized Russia’s military leadership many times before, but not Putin himself. This time, too, he did not mention Putin by name.
Russia celebrated the ideologically important Victory Day celebration for the Russian leadership on Tuesday. In his speech, Prigozhin also stated that certain unnamed persons should stop “spreading on Red Square”. ISW interprets Prigozh as referring to Putin and senior officials of the Russian Defense Ministry.
– If the Kremlin does not respond to Prigozhin’s criticism, it may weaken the norm in Putin’s administration, where it is not appropriate to criticize the president directly, ISW writes.
Russia researcher: Sacrilegious towards Putin
The fact that Prigozhin criticizes Putin in such a visible and crude way is a sacrilege towards the president, says the Alexander Institute’s research director Markku Kangaspuro Up in the morning.
According to Kangaspuro, it will be interesting to see if Prigož went too far in his comments.
– Has he accelerated himself into a rage, where he has slipped things that he shouldn’t say and made Putin look weak in the eyes of those who have followed the exit.
– Is it a question that the cheating has gotten out of Putin’s hands and that Putin’s position has weakened. Or has there been a mistake that will be corrected at some point, Kangaspuro continues.
Added information about the video published by the news site Meduza at 9:20 am.