WAGNER GROUP ATTEMPTED MILITARY COUP IN RUSSIA
June 23rd, 2023Update: Wagner Mercenary Leader Prigozhin Defends ‘March on Moscow’
Will Prigozhin have milk with his polonium tea?
Via: Al Jazeera:
More: Prigozhin Remains Defiant In First Audio Message Explaining Mutiny
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Al Jazeera Live:
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Reuters: Rebel Russian Mercenaries Will Turn Back to Avoid Bloodshed, Leader Says:
Mutinous Russian mercenary fighters who surged most of the way to Moscow have agreed to turn back to avoid bloodshed, their leader said on Saturday, in a de-escalation of what had become a major challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power.
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Russia Today: Wagner Agrees to End ‘Insurrection’ – Lukashenko:
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced on Saturday that he had arranged a deal whereby Wagner Group leader Evgeny Prigozhin will abandon his mutiny in exchange for “security guarantees” for his fighters.
“Evgeny Prigozhin accepted the proposal of President Alexander Lukashenko to stop the movement of armed men of Wagner in Russia and take further steps to de-escalate tension,” read a statement from Lukashenko’s office.
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ZeroHedge: Russia Destroying Roads to Slow Wagner Advance on Moscow:
Along with roadblocks of construction trucks and 18-wheelers, there are reports suggesting roads are being destroyed to block the insurrectionists’ progress.
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Daily Mail: Russian Military Deploys Around Moscow, Wagner Forces Hours Away:
Moscow is preparing for war and battening down the hatches as soldiers build outposts and military vehicles flood the streets ahead of the expected arrival of Russia’s Wagner militia forces within hours.
Wagner chief Yevgney Prigozhin initiated a military coup against Putin overnight, which has seen the group take key cities and threaten the President, who called them ‘traitors’.
Putin addressed the Russian people on Saturday, warning that the military leader had ‘stabbed him in the back’, as Moscow prepares to enter into lockdown, with troops digging in in preparation to defend the city.
Prigozhin and his feared 25,000-strong Wagner militia took control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, saying they are ‘ready to die’ for their ‘march of justice’, and have been heading north in a hundreds-strong convoy of armoured vehicles.
The unit passed through the halfway city of Voronezh and have reached as far north as Yelets as they advance on Moscow, seeing negligible resistance.
A message posted on the Wagner Telegram channel on Saturday said: ‘Putin made the wrong choice. All the worse for him. Soon we will have a new president.’
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AFP: Statements by Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin:
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Russian state controlled media also claims that it’s happening: Wagner PMC ‘Armed Coup’ Attempt in Russia:
There is some turmoil in Russia after Evgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner Group private military company, was accused by the government of staging an armed insurrection.
The charges were brought late Friday night after Prigozhin accused Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov, the chair of the Russian general staff, of serious crimes.
Prigozhin claimed to have ordered troops loyal to him to move towards Rostov-on-Don, a major city in southern Russia. Security measures were also reportedly beefed up in Moscow.
Via: Daily Mail:
Fears of an attempted coup in Russia were growing on Saturday as troops from the Wagner militia were marching on the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, led by the furious mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin set on revenge for Moscow killing some of his men.
Prigozhin issued a new message at about 2am on Saturday, Moscow time (2300 GMT), saying his forces had crossed the border from Ukraine, and were in Rostov.
Residents have been told to stay in their homes by government officials, but some were seen out observing what was happening, even live-streaming the action on their cell phones.
Prigozhin, who was once a confidant of Vladimir Putin before declaring war on Moscow’s military leadership, claimed his forces marched on the city ‘unopposed’.
Scott Ritter has been providing some in-depth analysis of the SMO since the beginning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE2IqsAO-2M
At minute 15, “Prigozhin is literally reading a script prepared by the Ukrainians”
Ritter believes the attack on Russia by the Wagner is ultimately being organized and directed by British Intelligence/MI6 with the CIA in a supporting role.
When I first watched Putin’s entire subtitled address on the situation at the Daily Mail link provided, he compared the current coup attempt to the overthrow of Russia by the Bolsheviks and their outside supporters in 1917–now that video link is gone and I’m only able to find edited versions of it that are poorly verbally translated. Gee, is it possible the same Bolsheviks and their financiers are still operating in the World?:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/190557035X/ref=nosim/cryptogoncom-20
More from Ritter–the complicated legal aspect of the Wagner group– “a private military contractor cannot operate on Russian soil”, at minute 30:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPPtux1Ib2k
Wagner: We’ve been offered a deal to execute a coup against Russia. Please advise.
Russia: How much?
Wagner: Six Billion.
Russia: Accept the deal. Bring the money into Russia. Then head to Belarus.
Wagner: 10-4. We’re on it.
American combat reporter in Rostov—the situation is much more nuanced than is generally believed. Citizens are in the streets cheering on the Wagner group AND Putin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qvFQJEyjwA
In George Galloway’s initial monologue, he puts out some interesting speculation, and disagrees with Scott Ritter’s take that Prigozhin is working with western intelligence. One idea he raises is that Prigozhin may have been coordinating with Putin on the “coup”, in order to reach some disired outcome–I don’t think that’s the case. He also highlights how the entire western media was aglow with the prospects of the mercenary king taking over the reigns from their hated nemesis Putin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72PSUpD4rmk
Kabuki theatre.
This is all too weird to be true. It’s more like a soap opera. And the timing, with the Biden story getting so hot, the submarine imploding, then this. What next?
Another analyst weighing in on the possibility that the “coup” was theatre–still not onboard with that but there is more detail presented on Prigozhin’s past. The commentary is followed by a tv interview with a US bureaucrat who is in a job WAY above his competency:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/06/25/sunday-talks-anthony-blinken-spins-a-tale-of-woe-for-vladimir-putin/#more-248140
I watched Putin give his indignation speech. He seems to be concentrating on whatever he is reading and is speaking more calmly than I’d expect from a politician who was facing civil war, as he says he is. At about 4:00, 4:35 and 5:09, he pauses briefly, like taking a mini-break, then resumes. In these breaks, he is not taking a second to get control of his indignation, or even to clear his throat, as could be expected, but shows a split-second of relaxation, a mental “whew!” as if gathering energy to go on with his act.
By the way, this translation is very poor and in a voice very unlike Putin’s, so it hardly represent what he said or how he said it. His behavior is better judged with the sound off or with accurate subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjBVFL0k_-0&ab_channel=SkyNews
As one commenter on Zerohedge put it:
“The fact that Prigozhin is still prancing around like the elephants in Fantasia without a bullet in his brain tells me that this is all smoke and mirrors …”
I agree. And what have we now? The Wagner fighting force has been allowed to move to Belarus — right on Kiev’s doorstep.
Yeah Pookie, having an excuse to bring part of the Wagner group (and others) into Belarus sure seems to be a big move.
A bunch of grounded speculation in this long article from Big Serge (highly recommended by “retired” russian/american journalist The Saker).
https://bigserge.substack.com/p/russo-ukrainian-war-the-wagner-uprising
“I think that Yevgeny Prigozhin is a bit like the Tyrannosaurus in Jurassic Park. Both the western neoliberal apparatus and the Russian four dimensional plan-trusters seem to think of Prigozhin as a cog that exists to execute the function of their world model. Whether that model is the long march of history towards democracy and the last man or a brilliant and nuanced master plan by Putin to destroy the unipolar Atlantic world, it does not matter much – both tend to negate Prigozhin’s agency and turn him into a slave of the model. But perhaps he is a Tyranosaurus, with an intelligence and will that has an internally generated direction indifferent to our world models. Perhaps he tore down the fence for reasons of his own.”
“The Russian leader thanked the Wagner soldiers and commanders, who “stopped at the last line” and didn’t allow the “fratricidal bloodshed” to take place. He added that the promise he gave during negotiations to settle the crisis will be kept.”
“Anyone, who wants to, can go to Belarus,” Putin said”
https://www.rt.com/russia/578758-putin/
He threatened a coup, marched towards Moscow with a crew of as few as 3,000 men (according to an ex Bulgarian army solder I know) along an open and obvious major road without being squashed by airstrikes, then pulls a volte-face and is offered refuge in Belarus, not to be extradited to Russia for the worst existential threat against the government since Yeltsin downed an entire distillery… It does seem to be theatre indeed.
But Russia is unfathomable and chaotic at the best of times; so while I think this probably portends an escalation and may have been a diversionary event of some kind, or a primer for the domestic audience in advance of an escalation, or a means of smoking out who is loyal and who is not in advance of an escalation, I don’t interpret it as the end of Putin just yet and his replacement with an even more aggressive leader.
Scott Ritter lays out more evidence for Prigozhin working with western intelligence, and his likely fate under the law—on George Galloway’s Mother of All Talk shows at approx. minute 29:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysbOupXtsCY