The head of the Wagner mercenary group threatened to attack Russia’s Defense Ministry after what he said was a missile strike that killed “huge” numbers of his men, as tensions surged between the two feuding Russian camps over the war in Ukraine.
(Bloomberg) — The head of the Wagner mercenary group threatened to attack Russia’s Defense Ministry after what he said was a missile strike that killed “huge” numbers of his men, as tensions surged between the two feuding Russian camps over the war in Ukraine.
The Defense Ministry denied the claims by Yevgeny Prigozhin that it had attacked Wagner’s bases in Russia, calling his allegations a “provocation” in a statement late Friday. Prosecutors opened a criminal probe into Prigozhin for allegedly calling for an “armed uprising.” The Federal Security Service said it was seeking to detain him and appealed to his troops not to obey his “criminal orders,” Interfax reported. Authorities tightened security in Moscow, according to Tass.
Prigozhin posted a series of audio messages on his Telegram channel late Friday vowing to “punish” Russia’s military leaders for the alleged attack and the losses of “tens of thousands” of Russian troops in the war. He accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of overseeing an operation to “destroy” Wagner.
There was no immediate sign of Wagner mobilizing to carry out Prigozhin’s threat, which marked the most dramatic escalation in the long-running battle between the mercenary leader and Russia’s defense establishment.
“There are 25,000 of us and we are going to figure out why there is lawlessness happening in the country,” Prigozhin said. “Everyone who wants to join us, we need to end this mess.”
Though he threatened to destroy “anyone who will try to resist,” Prigozhin said “this is not a military coup. This is a march of justice.”
President Vladimir Putin has been informed of all the events involving Prigozhin and “necessary measures” are being taken, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, the Interfax news service reported.
The country’s top anti-terror agency demanded Prigozhin stop illegal actions and said the Federal Security Service was investigating his comments, state-run Tass news service reported.
While it’s not certain yet whether Prigozhin will follow through on his threats, said Tatyana Stanovaya, founder of R.Politik, a political consulting firm, “the authorities’ reaction is clear – they’re putting down the mutiny.“
“In my view, this is the end of Wagner,” she said. “The system can’t tolerate his activeness any longer.”
Prigozhin, 62, has for months accused Shoigu and the Defense Ministry of failing to adequately support Wagner forces fighting in Ukraine, particularly during battles for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Prigozhin in May threatened to pull his troops out of the operation if they didn’t get supplies but later backed down.
Tensions have been rising again in recent weeks after Shoigu set a July 1 deadline for all volunteer units to sign a formal contract with the Defense Ministry — an order so far bluntly rejected by Prigozhin. Putin backed the ministry’s demand during a meeting with Russian journalists and military bloggers last week.
Earlier Friday, Prigozhin posted a video on Telegram accusing the Defense Ministry of “deceiving” Russians and Putin about the war as he challenged Kremlin justifications for the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The mercenary leader has increasingly put himself at odds with the Kremlin narrative about the war, while warning Russians that full mobilization and martial law are necessary to avoid defeat in Ukraine.
In an interview with a local journalist last month, he heaped praise on the performance of Ukraine’s military and scorned the “denazification and demilitarization” goals that Putin and top Kremlin officials used as justification for the war. “How did we demilitarize it? We actually militarized it,” he said. “It’s now one of the strongest armies.”
He also accused Russia’s top defense officials of using the war to enrich themselves and leaving the country unprotected following a border incursion by attackers who crossed from Ukraine.
(An earlier version of this article was corrected to reflect the appropriate attribution of the quote in paragraph five.)
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