Prigozhin: "the march towards Moscow was not intended to seize power but to denounce the misconduct of military operations in Ukraine"

Prigozhin: "the march towards Moscow was not intended to seize power but to denounce the misconduct of military operations in Ukraine"

The founder of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, released an 11-minute audio, in which he explained the reasons for the uprising against Russian troops last weekend.
A series of considerations which, to tell the truth, do not clarify what happened and above all, what will happen in the next few days.
Prigozhin I explained that the Wagner group's march towards Moscow "did not serve to seize power and overthrow the government but to denounce the poor conduct of military operations in Ukraine".
The Wagner group was destined to cease to exist on July 1st, none of its men had agreed to sign the contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense. The decision to march towards Russia, based on this reconstruction, was therefore not aimed at a coup that later failed, but “for justice”.
“The march – he further added – showed that there is a clear security problem in the country”.
Furthermore, according to the leader of the group, "The civilians encountered by his men during the march towards Moscow, which then stopped, supported Wagner."
“We retreated to avoid spilling the blood of Russian soldiers”, Prigozhin added in his reconstruction.
As for the future, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko would have found a solution "for the continuation of Wagner's operations in a legitimate jurisdiction" said the group's leader in reference to the mediation that put an end to the militants' march towards Moscow on Saturday.

The march to Moscow was not intended to overthrow Vladimir Putin but to prevent the "destruction" of Wagner.

However, nothing is yet clear about what really happened and what the consequences will be.

Proof of this is the fact that the same Prigozhin remains indicted by the Prosecutor General's Office for armed insurrection and at the same time his company resumed “normally” activity at its headquarters in St. Petersburg and in several other cities, where recruitment also began again. The Wagner boss also gave no indication of his whereabouts at the moment. One of the main question marks after the Kremlin made it known on Saturday evening that based on the agreement brokered by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko Prigozhin would go to Minsk.

Some Telegram channels and the Kyiv Post wrote that he had already been spotted in a hotel in the Belarusian capital, the Green City Hotel. But the management, contacted by Russian television RTVI, said it could not confirm the news. Just as Lukashenko's press service said it had no information on the matter.

No explicit mention of Belarus. While Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov assured that i Wagner militiamen will be able to continue their activities at least in Mali and the Central African Republic, without however mentioning Ukraine. It remains a mystery how two days ago the rebel mercenaries - around 25.000 - conquered the strategic city of Rostov, in the south of the country, without firing a shot and then proceeded almost undisturbed for hundreds of kilometers across Russia in the direction of Moscow.

The official version is that the authorities wanted to avoid bloodshed. Other sources put forward a more behind-the-scenes explanation: that is, the lack of resistance to Wagner, guaranteed by forces directly dependent on the Kremlin, such as the internal security service FSB and the National Guard, would have had the aim of allowing Prigozhin to gain points in the clash with the army under Defense Minister Serghei Shoigu, with whom not even Putin would have idyllic relations.
Certainly Shoigu, the Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and other leaders of the Ministry of Defense remain the figures most hated by Prigozhin, especially after the order given to private militias, including Wagner, to sign contracts to place themselves under the orders of the ministry by on July 1st.

“Me and the other Wagner officers – said Prigozhin – we refused and intended to lay down our arms on June 30 in Rostov. But then they bombed us, and so we undertook the march of justice towards Moscow to protest."

The advance stopped 200 kilometers from the capital due toDon't shed Russian blood.", Prigozhin repeated, thanking Lukashenko again for the solution found. According to other sources, however, the real mediator was Alexei Dyumin, governor of the Tula region who enjoys the trust of both President Vladimir Putin and Prigozhin. And who now some see as the favorite to be the new Defense Minister to replace Shoigu, even if not in the short term.

Meanwhile the Ukrainian troops “they have advanced in all directions” yesterday in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions: the Ukrainian president announced it on Telegram Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Today (yesterday, ed.) – the front.
Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia regions. Our warriors, our frontline positions, the areas of active operations at the front. Today (yesterday, ed.) our warriors have advanced in all directions and this is a happy day. I wished the boys more days like this": Zelensky wrote.