Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to portray Evgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the private military company Wagner, who started an armed uprising, as a corrupt figure.
Mr. Prigozhin arrived in Belarus on a private jet from St. Petersburg on the 27th. Putin, meanwhile, detailed that Wagner’s army and Prigozhin’s food and catering services company had paid more than $3 billion from the state budget over the past year. The company supplies food to Russian troops stationed in Ukraine.
“I’d like to think that no one embezzled anything, if at all it was a small amount, but of course we will investigate all this,” Putin said at a meeting with military officials. The remarks are an attempt to discredit Mr. Prigozhin, who claims that the armed uprising has garnered public sympathy, as a greedy traitor.
In an armed uprising, Wagner’s forces were once within 200 kilometers of Moscow, but Mr. Prigozhin concluded an agreement mediated by President Lukashenko of Belarus, and the uprising was brought to an end. Under the agreement, Putin promised not to criminally prosecute Wagner over the armed uprising, and authorities closed criminal investigations against Wagner and Prigozhin on Monday.
That doesn’t mean authorities won’t open investigations into embezzlement and corruption cases, said Aleksandr Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Most ordinary citizens of Russia are ardent supporters of the soldiers defending the Motherland. They don’t like smart entrepreneurs,” he told Telegram.
Putin meets with Russian military officials at the presidential palace on the 27th.
Photographer: Mikhail Tereshchenko/AFP/Getty Images
In an audio message posted on Telegram on Monday, Prigozhin claimed that Wagner’s troops were welcomed by a wide range of civilians on their march to Moscow. A video circulating on social media shows people cheering as Prigozhin and Wagner leave the southern city of Rostov-on-Don after the uprising is over.
In the weeks leading up to the armed uprising, Mr. Prigozhin held public rallies in Russian cities urging him to threaten defeat in Ukraine unless he stepped up his war effort by introducing mobilization and martial law. .
He appears to speak openly to the general public, visiting the homes of the families of Wagner fighters who died in Ukraine, conversing with them, handing over medals at their funerals and offering comforting words to the families.
Mr Putin, by contrast, has been surrounded by bodyguards and military officials since Mr Prigozhin’s uprising, and he appears shaken by what has become the greatest threat to his nearly 24-year rule.
The crisis has also baffled many senior officials. At the cabinet meeting televised on the 27th, the shock was clearly seen, and there was a heavy atmosphere.
Analysts at the Institute for War Research (ISW) said in a report on Wednesday that Putin had labeled Prigozhin a “corrupt liar” and “destroyed Prigozhin’s reputation in Wagner fighters and Russian society.” I’m trying to break it,” he said. “Putin likely decided at this stage that Prigozhin could not be removed directly without making him a martyr,” he said.
news-rsf-original-reference paywall">Original title:Putin Steps Up Effort to Undercut Wagner Leader After Revolt (1)(excerpt)
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2023-06-28 11:59:32
