Russian state TV is speculating about the reasons for Wagner boss Prigozhin’s attempted uprising against Putin.
Moscow – Yevgeny Prigozhin was extremely determined. In the middle of the conflict in Ukraine, on the night of June 23-24, the leader of the Wagner group announced that he would advance to Moscow with his paramilitary mercenary force unless Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov were removed from their positions would.
The plan was implemented: on June 24, the mercenaries seized the Russian army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don for several hours before heading towards Moscow. However, the uprising ended the same evening. Prigozhin then went into exile and settled in Belarus.
What state TV in Russia says about Prigozhin’s Wagner uprising
But why did the head of the Wagner group sever all ties behind him? A presenter on Russian state television claims to know the answer to this question. Dmitri Kissilev accuses Prigozhin of losing touch with reality after previously receiving billions in public funds.
“Prigozhin went nuts over large sums of money,” the journalist, who is close to the Kremlin, explained in his weekly program on Sunday, July 2. “He believed that he could rebel against the Russian Defense Ministry as well as against the state and the President himself,” added Kisilev, who is one of the most well-known figures in Russian propaganda.
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin |
June 1, 1961 |
Leningrad, today’s name: Saint Petersburg |
Lyubov Valentinovna Prigozchina |
Prigozhin’s feeling of “being able to afford anything” had already begun during the operations of his mercenary force in Syria and Africa. It “intensified” after Wagner mercenaries captured the Ukrainian cities of Soledar and Bakhmut that year, he added. The moderator explained that the Wagner group received state funds in the amount of 858 billion rubles (approximately 8.8 billion euros), without providing any evidence to support these claims.
Only a few days earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had admitted for the first time that the Wagner troupe had been fully equipped by the Russian government. Putin explained that between May 2022 and May 2023 the mercenary group received more than 86 billion rubles from the state.
According to Russian TV presenter, Wagner group not effective in Ukraine war
Prigozhin was free to recruit criminals for his mercenary service in Russian prisons. Russian MPs passed legislation providing longer prison sentences for critics of “volunteer groups” like Wagner. Prigozhin repeatedly accused the Russian military leadership of “stealing” victories from its fighters in eastern Ukraine and blamed Moscow’s “monstrous bureaucracy” for slow military progress.
On Sunday, Kisilyov dismissed claims that the Wagner group had been more effective than any other Russian task force in the Ukraine war. He argued that it took the mercenaries “225 days” to capture Bakhmut, while it took the regular army “70 days” to capture Mariupol. (cs/afp)
Machine assistance was used for this editorial-written article. The article was carefully checked before publication.
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