Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Moscow’s Kremlin, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2013. (AP)
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who last month brokered a deal to end an armed mutiny in Russia, says Yevgeny Prigozhin is back in Russia.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who arranged an agreement to stop Russia’s armed mutiny last month, announced on Thursday that Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was no longer in Belarus.
He announced on June 27 that Prigozhin had arrived in Belarus as part of the agreement.”
As for Prigozhin, he’s in St Petersburg,” he told reporters on Thursday, “He is not on Belarusian territory.”
During the news briefing, he recalled that Russia has always come out of any predicaments stronger. “This will be the case this time. We feel that this process has begun…Thank you for your concern, but we will deal with it,” he tersely stated.
Lukashenko adds that he intended to hold a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss the Wagner Group private military company.
“I intend to meet him [Putin] in the near future,” Lukashenko said, as quoted by the state-run Belta news agency, adding that issues related to the Wagner Group will be discussed.
The top Russian diplomat said that Russia does not have to explain to anyone about the attempted armed mutiny and its potential impact on the processes in the country, assuring that Moscow acts transparently.
On the evening of June 23, the Wagner Group took control of an army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a city in southern Russia, and marched toward Moscow the next day. Prigozhin claimed that his activities were in retaliation for the defense ministry’s purported assault on his group’s field camps, but the ministry denied this.
After speaking with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was acting at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin decided to put an end to the rebellion, and Lukashenko later acknowledged Prigozhin’s arrival in Belarus.
The glee that greeted the news that Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian oligarch and the titular head of the Wagner Group, had gone rogue might have been unseemly if the American political establishment were capable of shame. It isn’t. That alleged adults would hope for the dissolution of Russia, and the catastrophic social consequences that would follow, requires an ignorance of history that would be heroic if it were consciously chosen. The truism that people don’t know what they don’t know has particular relevance for the US in the current political moment.
The details of the story are reasonably well known by now and won’t be restated here except where relevant. Missing from Western press accounts since Russia launched its SMO (Special Military Operation) is the actual history that led to the conflict. On his way to Rostov-on-Don Prigozhin stepped into this absence with a series of anti-historical claims regarding the start of the war, all while asserting his allegiance to Vladimir Putin. Knowing nothing about the war outside of the talking points handed it by the Biden administration, the American press had a collective wargasm at the sight of a Russian channeling CIA talking points.
As fresh as current events may ‘feel,’ the US has been interfering in the internal affairs of Russia for well over a century. Racist crank and Progressive fascist Woodrow Wilson created the Committee on Public Information to sell WWI to the American people. As the war was winding down, Wilson deployed the American Expeditionary Force to Russia to reverse the Bolshevik Revolution. Ironically (not), the Brits and French also sent Expeditionary Forces toward this same end. The point: most of the anti-Russian West currently supporting the NATO proxy war in Ukraine has been at it since the early twentieth century.
Graph: in this simplified hypothetical based on current differences between US and Russian military spending, the ratio of US to Russian spending in Year 1 is 10:1, while the dollar amount of the difference is $90 ($100 – $10) . By Year 10, the ratio remains the same (10:1), while the cumulative dollar difference has risen to $900. The US spent $1,000 on its military while the Russians spent $100. Applying market logic (value = expenditure), the US has produced ten times as much ordinance and materiel as the Russian have. And yet Russia is a military threat? Source: Urie.
The political posturing around Prigozhin’s tour of Rostov-on-Don has largely been a restatement of the national-security-state-informed views of the regular consumers of American state propaganda. As evidenced by Prigozhin’s now well-censored statements on the internet, he spouted Biden administration talking points regarding the causes of the war (‘unprovoked’), interspersed with claims that the Russian military leadership is more interested in earning medals than with winning wars.
“Just before World War I ended, in 1918, an American force of seven thousand landed at Vladivostok as part of an Allied intervention in Russia and remained until early 1920. Five thousand more troops were landed at Archangel, another Russian port, also as part of an Allied expeditionary force, and stayed for almost a year. The State Department told Congress: “All these operations were to offset effects of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.”” Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States
The video of Prigozhin contradicting the historical events that Russian President Vladimir Putin cited as the proximate cause for Russia’s SMO (Special Military Operation) appears to have been disappeared from the internet. In opposition to OSCE maps of Ukrainian forces amassed at the border of Donbas in January 2022 as they shelled ethnic Russian Ukrainians, Prigozhin instead stated that Mr. Putin, whose claims were supported by the maps, was lying. To be clear, the OSCE is an EU institution with no ties to the Russian state.
News that ‘US spy agencies’ had briefed Congress on Prigozhin’s plans well before he stumbled back into Russia indicates foreknowledge. With US President Joe Biden stating that the US played no role in the rebellion, his audience has been reduced to the rapidly shrinking number of citizens of the world who find his views interesting, plausible, or relevant. Recent (alleged) leaks of Pentagon, DoD, and intelligence agency documents by Jack Teixeira put a lie to the Biden administration’s happy talk regarding Ukrainian military prowess.
Teixeira’s leaks revealed a much grimmer view of the war up to the present, as well as raising substantive questions regarding Ukraine’s prospects for the Spring / Summer ‘surge.’ In fact, the surge was halted immediately prior to Prigozhin’s holiday in Russia. Whether this represents abject failure on the part of the Ukrainians, the pause that refreshes, or anticipation of Prigozhin’s rebellion, has not been disclosed.
Described as an attempted ‘coup’ in the American press, Prigozhin subsequently claimed that that wasn’t the motive for his actions. Whether this is true, or he got cold feet when the leading institutions of the Russian state rallied around Vladimir Putin, is a question for the history books. That US intelligence agencies had foreknowledge of Prigozhin’s actions gives them a ‘Maidan’ feel. That most Americans have no knowledge that the US ousted the duly elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, in a US-led coup in 2013 – 2014, helps explain American support for the war.
Retired US Colonel Douglas MacGregor, a frequent and insightful commentator on events in Ukraine, is convinced that Prigozhin’s motives had little to do with a coup attempt. MacGregor’s theory is that the Russian military leadership, including Prigozhin, is frustrated with the slow pace of the war, particularly following the apparent implosion of the Ukrainian ‘surge.’ However, foreknowledge by US intelligence agencies, combined with the specifics of Prigozhin’s rant regarding the American starting point for the war, suggests that there is more to the story.
Prigozhin challenged the history of the war in terms that came straight from CIA talking points. The Russian explanation since the winter of 2021 has been 1) the war started with the American-led coup in Ukraine in 2013 – 2014, that in turn led to 2) and eight-year civil war in Ukraine in which 3) tens of thousands of ethnic Russian Ukrainians were slaughtered by the Banderite right (a.k.a. Nazis) supported by the US. Using maps from the OSCE, the Russians concluded that the Ukrainians were about to launch a major offensive against ethnic Russian Ukrainians in Donbass.
The Americans have maintained that the Russian offensive in Ukraine was ‘unprovoked,’ as in bearing no relation to the 2013 – 2014 US led coup there, the subsequent civil war, or the three-plus decades of the US moving NATO troops and weapons up to Russia’s border against repeated requests from the Russians not to do so. This Western anti-history is what Yevgeny Prigozhin was shouting when he announced his move of Wagner Group troops into Russia. Facts that were widely considered true before the SMO was launched are now verboten in the US.
Colonel MacGregor’s view that Prigozhin is frustrated with the restrained pace of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine doesn’t seem a complete explanation of recent events. Firstly, most Americans have no idea that the Russian pace has been restrained. To the extent there has been opposition to the war inside Russia, a substantial portion of it comes from the fact that the Ukrainian military and political leadership still exist in any incarnate form. ‘Shock and awe’ are how the Americans destroy a nation.
Unless Prigozhin is claiming that the OSCE is serving Russia’s war propaganda interests with its maps— a low probability endeavor, then he was giving a pledge of allegiance to the US / NATO / Ukraine war effort with his shouted announcement of the Wagner Group’s move into Russia. This would help explain the foreknowledge of his actions by Western intelligence agencies. It also contradicts US President Joe Biden’s wide-eyed insistence that the US was not in league with Prigozhin.
However, the Russians aren’t the intended audience for Biden’s rambling incoherence. ‘The world,’ meaning the governments that in theory represent the interests of 80% of the world’s population, supported Russia when Prigozhin went on summer holiday, and they still do today. This puts the incoherence of the American liberal conceit that they (liberals) represent the interests of the world’s downtrodden into perspective. The Global South supports Russia, not the US. Why would this be the case if Americans are regarded as liberators abroad?
Parallels between Joe Biden and Woodrow Wilson are mounting. Both are / were liberal technocrats who institutionalized racist and fascist / repressive policies while proclaiming themselves to be the saviors of humanity through ill-advised wars. WWI lit the world on fire. Colonel MacGregor argues, with some justification, that there wouldn’t have been a Bolshevik Revolution without massive Russian losses in WWI. Sergei Eisenstein’s ‘Battleship Potemkin’ brings some of these tensions to light.
“Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.” George Orwell, 1984
So again, concern inside Russia over the slow pace of the war contradicts everything that Americans have been told about it. While recent leaks of DoD and intelligence agency documents suggest that the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian conscripts have been lost to date, CNN and the New York Times have gone full-Orwell. American development economist Jeffrey Sachs, who was invited by the State Department to visit Ukraine during the Maidan ‘uprising,’ explains why and how it was a US sponsored coup here.
More to the point, a large contingent of American liberals have argued for eighteen months that the war in Ukraine should continue until Ukraine is victorious. This argument means one thing if the Ukrainians are winning the war, and quite another if they aren’t. The (alleged) Teixeira leaks reveal 1) that what American officials have been saying publicly about the progress of the war is contradicted by what they say about it in private, and 2) that the official assessment has it that things are going quite poorly for Ukraine.
This puts American supporters of the war in the position of volunteering Ukrainians to die for a war that they (the Americans) don’t understand. And yet there is no accountability. The proverbial ‘you’ had your facts wrong and large numbers of Ukrainian conscripts died as a result. But this is America. ‘You’ get promoted for having your facts wrong. A lot of people died as a result. However, as word from the Global South has it, the Lilliputians are rebelling.
An institutional problem in the US is that the domestic forces that instigated and continue to support the war risk losing power if the public turns against it. With Joe Biden representing the interests of the MIC (Military-Industrial Complex), Wall Street, the technology industry, and US-based oil and gas industry, the fear is that fake anti-war Republicans can pull a Nixon and shift the war, and with it, donor support, from Democrat to Republican hands. Unfortunately for both the self-styled heroes and villains in this scenario, Ukraine is losing the war.
What should put the fear of Buddha, Yahweh, God, into actual Americans, as opposed to the American political class, is the sanguine discourse being used to assert that nuclear wars are winnable. Go back and read the logic of American nuclear arms production from the 1950s – 1970s and you find talk of nuclear weapons being ‘cheap’ to produce relative to the cost of conventional military ordnance. That low stocks of non-nuclear ordnance could create a choice between surrendering or using nuclear weapons when adverse conditions arise suggests that, with NATO stocks running low, the adult children in the Biden administration could roll-the-dice by using nukes.
Moreover, with the MIC running US foreign policy, the temptation to use the war to sell newer ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons to an international clientele by demonstrating them on the battlefield is likely strong. The same Alfred E. Neumanesque mindset that claimed that Americans would be greeted as liberators when they invaded Iraq in 2003 imagines that the Russians aren’t serious about their nuclear red lines. The fake history of the Cuban Missile Crisis that Americans have been fed represents the MIC standard. By 1962 the Americans had installed first-strike nuclear weapons within miles of Russia (USSR) as they pretended to be shocked that the Soviets would do the same.
Likewise, much of the violence attributed to the Bolsheviks following the Bolshevik Revolution was spillover from WWI sweeping Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. WWI lasted from 1914 – 1918, while the Bolshevik Revolution took place in 1917, but wasn’t settled until 1922, when the (Soviet) Civil War ended. Again, the Americans, Brits, and French sent standing armies to reverse the Bolshevik victory in order to install a liberal, Western-friendly, government that would guarantee the property of Western investors in the USSR following the Revolution.
The Americans lost 117,000 troops in WWI while the Russians lost five and one-half million. The extreme brutality of WWII was a product of residual animosities from WWI. The Holocaust, for which German Nazis were blamed, was replicated across Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. To be clear, these other Holocausts were contemporaneous with the Nazi Holocaust, not inspired by it. While pogroms inspired by European anti-Semitism existed prior to the rise of the Nazis, conflation of Bolshevism with Judaism tied WWII to capitalist imperialism.
“Thousands of Nazis—from concentration camp guards to high-level officers in the Third Reich—came to the United States after World War II and quietly settled into new lives. They had little trouble getting in. With scant scrutiny, many gained entry on their own as self-styled war “refugees,” their pasts easily disguised and their war crimes soon forgotten. But some had help and protection: from the United States government. The CIA, the FBI, and the military all put Hitler’s minions to work as spies, intelligence assets and leading scientists and engineers, whitewashing their histories.” Eric Lichtblau, The New York Times.
Forgotten today is that many Westerners at the time, particularly amongst the elites, were virulently anti-Semitic. Former New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau, the author of The Nazis Next Door, details the casual anti-Semitism that informed US General George Patton’s worldview here. In contemporaneous political and public policy circles inside the US, the Nazis were viewed more as anti-communist fellow-travelers than the genocidal maniacs they are viewed as today. Once selective history is set to the side, fellow-travelers seems the more plausible interpretation.
The neo-Realist ‘Great Powers’ nonsense that is popular again since the launch of the Russian SMO is a ‘political’ exposition of ideas and events that found their basis in imperial economic competition. Consider: Joe Biden’s explanation of the US interest in Ukraine is first and foremost economic— to prevent Russia from controlling Europe through European dependence on Russian oil and gas. To be clear, Biden has no problem with the idea of economic dependence. His problem is with a Russian role in it.
Consider: economic dependence is an unexplained phenomenon in capitalist economics because it implies coercive power. Before the launch of Russia’s SMO, Russia was selling its oil and gas to Europe at a subsidized price, making it more attractive to European industry, while consigning said industries to the vagaries of Russian national interests. Paying a market price for oil and gas would raise costs for European industry, either crimping profits or making European products more expensive on world markets (also crimping profits). This gave the Russian state coercive power over European states through ‘their’ industries.
Recent US Presidents understood this, hence the unity of Donald Trump and Joe Biden acting to prevent the Russians from supplying Europe with Russian oil and gas. But what happened to the ‘freedom’ to purchase goods and services, including Russian oil and gas, from whomever one cares to? In American liberal logic, Ukraine has the ‘right’ to associate with NATO if it cares to, just like the Germans and French have (had) the ‘right’ to buy discounted oil and gas from Russia. The ‘fascist’ response was to blow up the pipeline— a.k.a. Nord Stream I and Nord Stream II.
While this isn’t the place for a full-blown exposition of the hypocrisies and paradoxes of capitalism, what the US is doing abroad isn’t capitalism as it is explained by its theoreticians. But it is capitalism as explained by Marxists. Capitalist imperialism is a corporate-state amalgam that exists to send state resources abroad for the benefit of nominally capitalist enterprises at home. An alternative name for this capitalist imperialism is fascism. The political-theoretical difference between state-capitalism and fascism lies in who it is that controls the state.
This Marxist view of capitalism placed the Germans as imperial competitors of the US in both World Wars. This is quite different from the current moral view of the Nazis as reprehensible human beings. From Eric Lichtblau’s reporting (above), moral clarity regarding the Nazis emerged for the Americans in proportion to the number of anti-Semitic Americans from the WWII era who have died off. That Joe Biden represents the moral vanguard of the American liberal class would be ironic if it weren’t so pathetic.
With the most expensive military in the world by a factor of ten, one might imagine that the US would be well-supplied with armaments. According to Colonel MacGregor, this isn’t the case. MacGregor laid out some fair portion of the path from an insufficient supply of conventional weapons to the use of nuclear weapons by the Americans. The obvious question of where the world’s most expensive military is spending its money seems relevant here. While speculation can go far in developing an explanation, the threat of nuclear annihilation is the more pressing result.
With the Americans having refused to implement multiple peace agreements that have been signed between the Ukrainians and the Russians, the NATO proxy war in Ukraine is now an American war. And while the American liberals who support the war deserve whatever consequences might come their way, the rest of the world doesn’t. End the war now.
Rob Urie is an artist and political economist. His book Zen Economics is published by CounterPunch Books.
The Biden administration had a glorious few days last weekend. The ongoing disaster in Ukraine slipped from the headlines to be replaced by the “revolt,” as a New York Times headline put it, of Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the mercenary Wagner Group.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken—the administration’s go-to wartime flack, who weeks ago spoke proudly of his commitment not to seek a ceasefire in Ukraine—appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation with his own version of reality: “Sixteen months ago, Russian forces were . . . thinking they would erase Ukraine from the map as an independent country,” Blinken said. “Now, over the weekend they’ve had to defend Moscow, Russia’s capital, against mercenaries of Putin’s own making. . . . It was a direct challenge to Putin’s authority. . . . It shows real cracks.”
Blinken, unchallenged by his interviewer, Margaret Brennan, as he knew he would not be—why else would he appear on the show?—went on to suggest that the defection of the crazed Wagner leader would be a boon for Ukraine’s forces, whose slaughter by Russian troops was ongoing as he spoke. “To the extent that it presents a real distraction for Putin, and for Russian authorities, that they have to look at—sort of mind their rear as they’re trying to deal with the counter offensive in Ukraine, I think that creates even greater openings for the Ukrainians to do well on the ground.”
At this point was Blinken speaking for Joe Biden? Are we to understand that this is what the man in charge believes?
We now know that the chronically unstable Prigozhin’s revolt fizzled out within a day, as he fled to Belarus, with a no-prosecution guarantee, and his mercenary army was mingled into the Russian army. There was no march on Moscow, nor was there a significant threat to Putin’s rule.
Pity the Washington columnists and national security correspondents who seem to rely heavily on official backgrounders with White House and State Department officials. Given the published results of such briefings, those officials seem unable to look at the reality of the past few weeks, or the total disaster that has befallen the Ukraine military’s counter-offensive.
So, below is a look at what is really going that was provided to me by a knowledgeable source in the American intelligence community:
“I thought I might clear some of the smoke. First and most importantly, Putin is now in a much stronger position. We realized as early as January of 2023 that a showdown between the generals, backed by Putin, and Prigo, backed by anti-Russian extremists, was inevitable. The age-old conflict between the ‘special’ war fighters and a large, slow, clumsy, unimaginative regular army. The army always wins because they own the peripheral assets that make victory, either offensive or defensive, possible. Most importantly, they control logistics. special forces see themselves as the premier offensive asset. When the overall strategy is offensive, big army tolerates their hubris and public chest thumping because SF are willing to take high risk and pay a high price. Successful offense requires a large expenditure of men and equipment. Successful defense, on the other hand, requires husbanding these assets.
“Wagner members were the spearhead of the original Russian Ukraine offensive. They were the ‘little green men’. When the offensive grew into an all-out attack by the regular army, Wagner continued to assist but reluctantly had to take a back seat in the period of instability and readjustment that followed. Prigo, no shy violet, took the initiative to grow his forces and stabilize his sector.
“The regular army welcomed the help. Prigo and Wagner, as is the wont of special forces, took the limelight and took the credit for stopping the hated Ukrainians. The press gobbled it up. Meanwhile, the big army and Putin slowly changed their strategy from offensive conquest of greater Ukraine to defense of what they already had. Prigo refused to accept the change and continued on the offensive against Bakhmut. Therein lies the rub. Rather than create a public crisis and court-martial the asshole [Prigozhin], Moscow simply withheld the resources and let Prigo use up his manpower and firepower reserves, dooming him to a stand-down. He is, after all, no matter how cunning financially, an ex-hot dog cart owner with no political or military accomplishments.
“What we never heard is three months ago Wagner was cycled out of the Bakhmut front and sent to an abandoned barracks north of Rostov-on-Don [in southern Russia] for demobilization. The heavy equipment was mostly redistributed, and the force was reduced to about 8,000, 2,000 of which left for Rostov escorted by local police.
“Putin fully backed the army who let Prigo make a fool of himself and now disappear into ignominy. All without raising a sweat militarily or causing Putin to face a political standoff with the fundamentalists, who were ardent Prigo admirers. Pretty shrewd.”
There is an enormous gap between the way the professionals in the American intelligence community assess the situation and what the White House and the supine Washington press project to the public by uncritically reproducing the statements of Blinken and his hawkish cohorts.
The current battlefield statistics that were shared with me suggest that the Biden administration’s overall foreign policy may be at risk in Ukraine. They also raise questions about the involvement of the NATO alliance, which has been providing the Ukrainian forces with training and weapons for the current lagging counter-offensive. I learned that in the first two weeks of the operation, the Ukraine military seized only 44 square miles of territory previously held by the Russian army, much of it open land. In contrast, Russia is now in control of 40,000 square miles of Ukrainian territory. I have been told that in the past ten days Ukrainian forces have not fought their way through the Russian defenses in any significant way. They have recovered only two more square miles of Russian-seized territory. At that pace, one informed official said, waggishly, it would take Zelensky’s military 117 years to rid the country. of Russian occupation.
The Washington press in recent days seems to be slowly coming to grips with the enormity of the disaster, but there is no public evidence that President Biden and his senior aides in the White House and State Department aides understand the situation.
Putin now has within his grasp total control, or close to it, of the four Ukrainian oblasts—Donetsk, Kherson, Lubansk, Zaporizhzhia—that he publicly annexed on September 30, 2022, seven months after he began the war. The next step, assuming there is no miracle on the battlefield, will be up to Putin. He could simply stop where he is, and see if the military reality will be accepted by the White House and whether a ceasefire will be sought, with formal end-of-war talks initiated. There will be a presidential election next April in Ukraine, and the Russian leader may stay put and wait for that—if it takes place. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has said there will be no elections while the country is under martial law.
Biden’s political problems, in terms of next year’s presidential election, are acute—and obvious. On June 20 the Washington Post published an article based on a Gallup poll under the headline “Biden Shouldn’t Be as Unpopular as Trump—but He Is.” The article accompanying the poll by Perry Bacon, Jr., said that Biden has “almost universal support within his own party, virtually none from the opposition party and terrible numbers among independents.” Biden, like previous Democratic presidents, Bacon wrote, struggles “to connect with younger and less engaged voters.” Bacon had nothing to say about Biden’s support for the Ukraine war because the poll apparently asked no questions about the administration’s foreign policy.
The looming disaster in Ukraine, and its political implications, should be a wake-up call for those Democratic members of Congress who support the president but disagree with his willingness to throw many billions of good money after bad in Ukraine in the hope of a miracle that will not arrive. Democratic support for the war is another example of the party’s growing disengagement from the working class. It’s their children who have been fighting the wars of the recent past and may be fighting in any future war. These voters have turned away in increasing numbers as the Democrats move closer to the intellectual and moneyed classes.
If there is any doubt about the continuing seismic shift in current politics, I recommend a good dose of Thomas Frank, the acclaimed author of the 2004 best-seller What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, a book that explained why the voters of that state turned away from the Democratic party and voted against their economic interests. Frank did it again in 2016 in his book Listen, Liberal: Or, Whatever Happened to the Party of the People? In an afterword to the paperback edition he depicted how Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party repeated—make that amplified—the mistakes made in Kansas en route to losing a sure-thing election to Donald Trump.
It may be prudent for Joe Biden to talk straight about the war, and its various problems for America—and to explain why the estimated more than $150 billion that his administration has put up thus far turned out to be a very bad investment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that the “neo-Nazis in Kiev” and their Western backers desired the same goals as the mutiny planners.
During an address from the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuked the organizers of the recently unsuccessful mutiny by PMC Wagner Group personnel, claiming that they abandoned not only their country and people but also the men who were tricked into engaging in this “crime.”
Putin said that the “neo-Nazis in Kiev,” and their Western backers desired the same end as the mutiny organizers: an intra-Russian battle in which Russian soldiers would have been killing one another.
He emphasized that the mutiny’s planners were fully aware that their uprising would have been put down and that their actions were ultimately intended to harm Russia.
“I emphasize that from the very beginning of the events, all necessary decisions were immediately taken to neutralize the threat that arose, to protect the constitutional order, the life, and security of our citizens,” Putin said.
Putin also emphasized that most of the soldiers and leaders of the Wagner Group are “Russian patriots devoted to their people and state,” who displayed their patriotism “with their courage on the battlefield, liberating Donbass and Novorossiya.”
The President praised the members of the Wagner Group who refrained from crossing the “final line,” and informed them that they could now either continue serving Russia by signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense or another law enforcement organization, or they could go back to their families at home. The president also said that anybody is free to relocate to Belarus.
Putin thanked all Russian servicemen, law enforcement officers, and special services’ members who “stood in the way” of the mutineers and “remained faithful” to their duty during this crisis, as well as members of the Wagner Group who did not participate in the mutiny.
Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, was also thanked by the Russian president for “his efforts and contribution to the peaceful resolution of the situation.” However, Putin added that it was the “consolidation of the entire Russian society that played a decisive role” in resolving this crisis.”
The chief of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner PMC was slammed with criminal charges for staging an armed mutiny in the Rostov region in southwest Russia on June 24.
Yevgeny Prigozhin announced on his Telegram channel that he stormed the region and took over the military headquarters in response to what he claims was a Russian attack on his troops earlier under the orders of the Defense Ministry.
Due to the developing events, Moscow canceled all public events as the PMC came just 6 hours away from the Russian capital amid continued advancements, while Russian security units stormed Wagner’s headquarters in St. Petersburg.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov (June 24, 2023).
The Wagner private military company led by Evgeny Prigozhin pulled its fighters on Sunday from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, where the armed contractors launched an insurrection that ended late Saturday.
Wagner troops have withdrawn from Russia’s Lipetsk and Voronezh regions, local authorities have said, noting that situation was back to normal on Sunday, according to Russian media.
Voronezh local governor Alexander Gusev told Russia Today (RT) that Wagner troops have almost left Russia’s Voronezh Region with no reports of any incidents, adding that added that once the situation is completely resolved, the authorities would lift all temporary restrictions.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Chechen special-ops force Akhmat, which has been sent to Rostov Region to handle the Wagner insurrection, has been returning to the area of the special military operation to again face Ukrainian troops, the unit’s commander Apty Alaudinov told TASS news agency.
He noted that those members of the force who had taken part in the Rostov operation would now be involved in the liberation of Maryinka, a Ukrainian-held stronghold near the Russian city of Donetsk.
Earlier on Saturday night, Russia’s federal road agency, Rosavtodor, told TASS news agency that all restrictions on traveling on roads and highways were lifted.
The traffic on some roads was suspended on Saturday as the Wagner fighters were moving towards the capital.
Wagner Mutiny
The Wagner troops launched on Friday evening an insurrection in which they managed to seize an army headquarters in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, with some forces marching on Moscow.
However, on Saturday’s night Wagner chief agreed to stop the advance towards the Russian capital and return his troops to their bases in exchange for “security guarantees” as part of a deal with Moscow, brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Wagner boss Evgeny Prigozhin was filmed apparently preparing to leave Rostov-on-Don after announcing the withdrawal to the ‘field camps’ of his PMC’s fighters, following an armed rebellion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that the situation with Wagner won’t affect Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
“Under no circumstances,” Peskov told journalists late Saturday, when asked whether the events with the Wagner would have an impact on the operation in Ukraine.
kremlin spokesman dmitry peskov
“The special military operation in Ukraine continues, our soldiers at the frontline are demonstrating heroism, they are quite effectively and successfully countering the counteroffensive of Ukraine’s armed forces. And the operation will continue,” the spokesman said, as quoted by Sputnik news agency.
Peskov stressed that Wagner troops engaged in the tensions won’t be prosecuted, adding that those wishing to sign a contract with the Russian defense ministry in the future would be able to do so.
US Knew of Coup In Advance
On the other hand, The New York Times reported on Saturday that US intelligence agencies strongly suspected that Evgeny Prigozhin was planning a major move against the Russian government, days before the Wagner chief ordered his troops to march on Moscow.
A member of Wagner group stands guard in Rostov-on-Don, on June 24, 2023 (photo by AFP).
According to unnamed US officials interviewed by the paper, the administration of US President Joe Biden and military commanders were briefed on the Wagner preparations as early as Wednesday. As additional details came in, another briefing attended by a narrow group of congressional leaders was reportedly held on Thursday.
The report added that Washington kept silent because it “had little interest” in helping Russia out.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warns that he will not allow internal divisions in Russia and will protect the country and its people from all threats.
His address came after Wagner PMC under the group’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin staged a military mutiny in Rostov region southwest of Russia and took control of the city Saturday morning.
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed in a live speech on Saturday that all parties responsible for the attempted armed mutiny in Rostov will face the rule of law and will have to answer to the people of Russia.
Prigozhin announced on his Telegram channel storming the region and taking over the military headquarters of the city, in response to what he claims was a Russian attack on his troops earlier under the orders of the Defense Ministry.
“Decisive measures are also being taken to stabilize the situation in Rostov-on-Don. It remains complicated, with the work of civilian and military administrative bodies effectively blocked,” Putin said.
All those who “deliberately took the path of treason, who prepared an armed uprising, who took the path of insurrection and terrorist methods, will suffer inevitable punishment, will answer to the law and our people,” he said, confirming that he has instructed agencies to neutralize the armed mutiny.
The president also called on those who are “being dragged into this crime not to make the fatal and tragic, unspeakable mistake and to make the only right choice — to stop participating in criminal actions,” he said.
He stressed that all disputes must be put aside at a time when the fate of the people of the Russian Federation is being defined.
Russia’s leader described Prigozhin’s action as “treason” that was driven by “personal interests and excessive ambition”.
During his address, he said “Let us defend both our people and our statehood against all threats, including internal treason, and what we have encountered is precisely this treason. Excessive ambition and personal interests have led to betrayal, betrayal of our country, our people, and the cause for which the fighters and commanders of the Wagner Group fought and died side by side with our other units and detachments.”
Wagner ‘heroic’ forces not to fall into deception: Putin
The Russian leader acknowledged the great sacrifices of Wagner’s soldiers during their fight in Ukraine on the path to preserving Russia’s unity, adding that these troops have been betrayed by those who staged the armed mutiny and are pushing the country toward defeat and eventually surrender.
Putin appealed to the paramilitary group’s fighters that were subjected to “deception or threats, and was drawn into this criminal adventure and pushed down the path of the grave crime of armed insurrection,” and urged them not to “make the fatal and tragic, unspeakable mistake and to make the only right choice — to stop participating in criminal actions.”
“The heroes who liberated Soledar and Artyomovsk [Bakhmut], the cities and towns of Donbas, fought and gave their lives for Novorossiya, for the unity of the Russian world. Their name and glory have also been betrayed by those who are trying to organize a mutiny, pushing the country toward anarchy and fratricide, to defeat, and ultimately to capitulation,” he said.
WWI strife not to happen again: Putin
“I appeal to the citizens of Russia, to the personnel of the armed forces, law enforcement agencies, and special services, to the fighters and commanders who are now fighting in their combat positions, repelling the enemy’s attacks and doing so heroically,” he said, adding that “he has spoken again to the commanders of all the [front] lines.”
He confirmed that “As President of Russia and Commander-in-Chief, as a citizen of Russia, I will do everything to defend the country, to protect the constitutional order, the lives, security, and freedom of citizens.”
Putin announced that orders have been given out to relevant governmental bodies, revealing that “anti-terrorist measures” are on the way in Moscow and other regions, adding that “Decisive measures are also being taken to stabilize the situation in Rostov-on-Don. It remains complicated, with the work of civilian and military administrative bodies effectively blocked.”
Recalling the division that occurred in the country during WWI, Putin confirmed that he will not let this occur again. “We will not let this happen again, we will protect both our people and our statehood from any threats.”
Internal turmoil is “a mortal threat to our statehood, to the nation,” he added, vowing strict action to protect Russia from such a threat.
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Yevgeny Prigozhin announced on his Telegram channel storming the region and taking over the military headquarters in response to what he claims was a Russian attack on his troops earlier under the orders of the Defense Ministry.
Due to the developing events, Moscow canceled all public events as the PMC came just 5 hours away from the Russian capital amid continued advancements, while Russian security units stormed Wanger’s headquarters in St. Petersburg.
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The Russian state declared war on Wagner and held its leader accountable after the armed insurrection
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on Saturday that the unfolding events were a betrayal of the country and its people and Russia would defend itself from internal treachery.
“We will defend both our people and our statehood from any threats, including internal treachery. What we have been confronted with can be precisely called treachery. The unbounded ambitions and personal interests have led to a treason and a betrayal of the country and its people,” the head of state stressed.
As Putin pointed out, this has led to the betrayal “of the cause for which fighters and commanders of the Wagner group had fought and lost their lives side to side with other formations and units.”
“The heroes who liberated Soledar and Artyomovsk, towns and settlements in Donbass, who fought and lost their lives for Novorossiya, for the unity of the Russian world – their name and glory have also been betrayed by those who are trying to stage a mutiny and pushing the country towards anarchy and fratricide, defeat and finally surrender,” the head of state said.
A civil war will not be allowed to repeat itself in the country, Putin stressed.
The Telegram channel of Wagner private military company founder Yevgeny Prigozhin earlier posted several audio records with accusations against the country’s military leaders. In the wake of this, the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia has opened a criminal case into a call for an armed mutiny. The FSB urged Wagner fighters not to obey Prigozhin’s orders and take measures for his detention.
Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergey Naryshkin denounced the ongoing coup as “treason,” branding it “the most terrible crime, which cannot be justified by any past merits.” Meanwhile, he said that the attempt to spark a “civil war” in the country has already failed, with Russian society demonstrating “civic maturity.”
Wagner PMC ‘armed coup’ attempt in Russia
Evgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group private military company, has been 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.
Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said the Russian military is “carrying out the necessary operational and combat measures” in the region as part of the ongoing counter-terrorism operation, without providing further details.
St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said that the situation in the city, which is a home to the Wagner Center HQ, remains stable, with increased security measures put in place. He also noted that “lawful actions of law enforcement agents, including those in the Wagner Center building, have no impact on the ongoing activities in the city,” apparently referring to earlier reports that operatives were conducting searches there.
The situation in Rostov-on-Don is tense but with no disorder, a Ria Novosti correspondent reported from the scene. Earlier in the day, several media outlets shared clips of tanks moving around the city, with unidentified soldiers patrolling the streets.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has canceled all mass public events, while adding that there are no restrictions on movement around the capital.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has urged Wagner Group private military company soldiers to cease their armed insurrection, urging them to return to their bases. In a statement on Saturday, the ministry claimed that members of the PMC “have been tricked into taking part in [Wagner group chief Evgeny] Prigozhin’s criminal gamble,” adding that some Wagner fighters “have already understood their mistake” and have asked the authorities for help in safely returning to their permanent deployment areas.
Sergey Surovikin calls on Wagner PMC to resolve problems peacefully, not to aid enemy
Russia’s Deputy Commander of Russian joint forces in the special military operation area Sergey Surovikin called on the Wagner PMC to comply with President Vladimir Putin’s order and to resolve all issues peacefully, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
“I urge you to stop. The enemy is waiting for our internal political situation to escalate. We must not play in enemy’s favor in this difficult time. Before it is too late, it is necessary to submit to the will and order to the nationally elected president of the Russian Federation, to stop the convoys, to take them back to their permanent deployment and concentration locations, and to only resolve all issues peacefully,” he said.
Surovikin added that he arrived from the frontline under order of the Defense Ministry board.
“We have together come a difficult way, we were fighting together, risking, suffering casualties, we were winning together. We are of same blood, we are fighters,” he added.
Earlier, Prigozhin’s Telegram channel published several audio messages. In particular, Prigozhin claimed that his units were hit with airstrikes, accusing Russia’s military leadership. In this regard, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) initiated a criminal case over charges of call for an armed rebellion.
The Russian Defense Ministry called the reports on strikes at Wagner PMC units false. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Vladimir Putin was informed about the situation around Prigozhin and “necessary measures are being taken.”
Chechen leader Kadyrov says his forces ready to help put down Wagner’s mutiny
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Saturday his forces were ready to help put down a mutiny by Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and to use harsh methods if necessary.
Kadyrov in a statement called Prigozhin’s behavior “a knife in the back” and called on Russian soldiers not to give in to any “provocations.”
He said that Chechen units were moving toward the “zones of tension” and would act to “preserve Russia’s units and defend its statehood.”
Kadyrov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin who commands extensive military forces in Chechnya, had previously been seen as a Prigozhin ally, sharing some of the Wagner boss’s criticisms of the Russian military hierarchy.
In recent weeks, however, Chechen commanders aligned with Kadyrov had begun criticizing Prigozhin’s regular outbursts against the defense ministry.
Medvedev highlights need for Russians to rally around president
Preventing a national split requires rallying around Russian President Vladimir Putin, Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
“Rallying around our president and the supreme commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces is crucial for defeating the external and internal enemy, which seeks to tear our Homeland apart, and for saving our state. National split and betrayal would lead to the greatest tragedy ever and a universal catastrophe,” he pointed out.
“We will not let it happen. The enemy will be crushed. Victory will be ours,” Medvedev added.
Earlier, Vladimir Putin delivered a televised address to the nation, describing developments in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don as betrayal and a blow to Russia and its people. He warned the mutineers against making a fatal mistake and urged them to stop participating in illegal activities.
On Friday, several audio recordings were posted on the Telegram channel of Wagner private military company founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. He particularly claimed that his forces had come under attack, which he blamed on the country’s military authorities. In this regard, the Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a criminal investigation into calls for armed mutiny. The Russian Defense Ministry slammed allegations of a strike on the Wagner PMC’s “rear camps” as fake news.
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev
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