In this episode of La Loupe, Xavier Yvon explains how the maintenance of Sergeï Choïgou illustrates the functioning of Vladimir Poutine’s system with Clément Daniez and Léo Vidal-Giraud, journalists at the Monde service of L’Express.
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The team: Xavier Yvon (presentation), Charlotte Baris (writing), Ambre Rosala (editing), Jules Krot (directing) and Marion Galard (work-study).
Credits: BFM TV, Wagner and Kremlin Telegram accounts
Music and dressing: Emmanuel Herschon / Studio Torrent
Picture credits: Alexey Nikolsky
Logo: Anne-Laure Chapelain / Benjamin Chazal
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Xavier Yvon: At La Loupe, we regularly paint a portrait of the figures who matter in Russia, and who help to better understand the conflict in Ukraine. In this gallery of portraits which is beginning to be provided, we are now going to add that of a man whose name comes up very often: Sergeï Choïgou. For that, I need to summarize for you the failed rebellion of the Wagner militia, which took place only ten days ago.
Friday, June 23, in the evening, Evgueni Prigojine speaks in an audio message on social networks. Screaming, as usual, the boss of the Wagner militia announces that he wants to “stop the evil embodied by the country’s military leaders”, responsible according to him for the death of Russian soldiers on the front. He adds that thousands of Wagner’s men are marching towards Moscow and are even already in Rostov.
Rostov on the Don, in the south-west of Russia, where he thought he would find his rival: Sergei Choigou, the Minister of Defense. For months, the two men oppose each other. Prigojine keeps asking for his departure. During the rebellion, he adds in a video “We are here because we want Shoigu’s head.”
The end, you know it. Yevgueni Prigojine did not go as far as Moscow, Vladimir Putin let him go to Belarus, and above all, Sergei Choigou did not fall. The one we imagined to be the big loser from the first hours of the revolt seems untouchable.
In this episode of La Loupe, we tell you how the outcome, for Sergei Choigou, of this failed coup, is the perfect illustration of the system put in place by Vladimir Putin.
For further
PODCAST. The new recipes of Evgueni Prigojine, the “cook of Putin”
Russia, now what? Putin’s revenge, the role of Prigozhin, other rebellions…
Mikhail Khodorkovsky: “After that of Prigojine, other rebellions will occur in Russia”
Vitali Shkliarov, Belarusian opponent: “With Prigojine, Lukashenko bought life insurance”