On Red Square, closed to the public, dozens of soldiers and policemen, whose medals beat on their chests, walk in groups towards their bus. On June 27, three days after the mutiny orchestrated by Yevgeny Prigojine, Vladimir Putin summoned them to the courtyard of the Kremlin. During this improvised ceremony, the president paid tribute to the ten soldiers who died in the fighting against the mercenaries who were trying to climb on Moscow. Then he thanked the members of the Russian security apparatus for having “prevented a civil war”.
Organized at the last moment, this meeting shows the feverishness of the Russian president in the management of this crisis. Weakened, he had to do violence to himself by doing everything he hates: mingling with the population to communicate. On June 28, it was announced in Dagestan to talk… tourism. If we must be wary of the dates of broadcast of the reports of state television, which sometimes use dated documents to invent trips or presidential meetings, this one seems to have taken place. Visiting the citadel of Naryin-Kala, Vladimir Putin overplayed his emotions, to reappear among some the theory that the head of the Kremlin would use look-alikes.
He even left his procession to throw himself into a crowd. A most unusual act, when he has lived for two years in isolation linked to his paranoid fear of assassination and the Covid. “Journalists who follow Putin were very surprised when he went to the people and started to hug and kiss the public,” says photographer and opponent Rustëm Adaganov. Tass photojournalist Sergei Savostianov spent a week in solitary confinement to be able to follow the president to Dagestan. But after the shock of the mutiny, Putin wanted so much to stage his link with the people that he overrode the health standards he had established. In three days, the president has met with all those who make up his power: soldiers, state press, political party leaders and… the population.
Prigozhin is “supported by many people”
Meanwhile, most Russians watched this episode from a distance, as if it were a political battle between elites that did not concern them. This is less true for many Muscovites, who were afraid on Saturday June 24, and did not know if they should take refuge outside the capital when the mercenaries were announced nearby. Some, however, support Yevgueni Prigojine’s approach. Like this young man in marcel met at the foot of the Kremlin ramparts, who did not wish to give his name. He says “to support what he has done”, without daring to mention the name of the head of Wagner. He believes that the militia “has traveled 800 km without hindrance, proof that he is supported by many people” and thinks that Prigozhin “is a real patriot”. This young man, who says he has many friends at Wagner, half-hopes that this “revolution” will allow a change of hierarchy within the Ministry of Defense, but, prudently, does not wish “the Kremlin” any.
Behind the scenes, Vladimir Putin has been working for several days to find the traitors, necessarily numerous for such an uprising to be possible. But the president’s weakness is such that a Stalinist purge does not seem feasible. General Sourovikine, close to Evgueni Prigojine, would have been interrogated but left free and at his post. His deputy, Colonel General Youdin, was discreetly dismissed from his post. Military bases located on the route of the Wagners have also been placed under increased surveillance. But nothing, for the moment, to talk about witch hunts. The paranoia remains, and the president’s services are on alert: on June 29, a construction barge was inspected under a bridge located on Vladimir Putin’s route when he goes to the Kremlin. The services feared to find explosives there…
Disbanded troll farm
The question of the fate of the chief mutineer Evgueni Prigojine now arises. A week after his attempted coup on Moscow, no one could say whether he was still alive or free. The one who was promised exile in Belarus with his private militia of heavy weapons was seen in Saint Petersburg last week. The Express followed in his footsteps. According to an agreement with Vladimir Putin, the head of Wagner had until July 1 to dismantle his empire made up of hundreds of companies. A man resembling him was photographed by the local newspaper fontanka on a helipad opposite the luxury palace Trezzini, his informal office. The man arrived in a helicopter belonging to Wagner, accompanied by Yevgueni Prigojine’s bodyguard. But this masked man had all his fingers, which is not the case of the militia leader, amputated of a phalanx.
However, we were able to see that its large companies were in the process of being taken over. The showcase of his multinational, the “Wagner” center barely recovered from a search, was about to move on June 30th. And his famous “troll factory” has been disbanded. A close associate of Vladimir Putin, the oligarch Yuri Kovalchuk, should take control of the parent company “Patriot”.
In St. Petersburg, we also found one of the vans inspected by the FSB, in the courtyard of his hotel. Charred vehicle, graffiti, broken glass, the decor recalls the Saint Petersburg of the 1980s during which Prigojine assaulted old ladies in the backyards. On June 24, while its militiamen were defying power, the FSB forced open the trunk door of this abandoned truck to find the equivalent of 41 million euros stored there. In the offices, the agents reportedly found drugs, weapons and gold bars. These searches are a good illustration of the main battle led by Vladimir Putin during this week of unrest: for him it is a question of stripping Evgueni Prigojine of his fortune and, more importantly, of his influence. As quickly as possible.