2023-06-24 10:23:03
BBC News Mundo Writing June 23, 2023
updated 2 hours
image copyrightGetty Images
Caption,
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the nation in a televised address.
“A stab in the back for personal ambition.” This is how Russian President Vladimir Putin defined the challenge launched by his former ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, the powerful founder of the Wagner Group.
The private army of mercenaries who have been fighting on the side of the Russian army since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 have rebelled against the Russian military high command and are advancing into the interior of Russia.
A huge military column took the capital of the Russian region of Rostov-on-Don.
Prigozhin said his soldiers crossed into Russia at multiple locations, noting that they were welcomed with open arms by border agents.
In a speech to the nation, Putin admitted that he is facing an armed mutiny and that his forces no longer control Rostov-on-Don.
He also accused the head of the Wagner mercenary group of treason and threatened a harsh response.
image copyrightReuters
Caption,
Prigozhin claims that some of his fighters managed to cross from Ukraine into Russia.
Prigozhin’s close ties to the Kremlin and Putin himself go back years.
In fact, the Wagner Group is believed to have defended Russian interests in Syria and Libya, as well as Sudan or the Central African Republic.
Overthrow Russian military leaders
But everything seems to have ended with what the Russian high command consider “a betrayal”.
In recent months, Prigozhin has repeatedly accused Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu and Ukraine army chief Valery Gerasimov of incompetence and deliberately undersupplying Wagner units fighting in Ukraine.
Wagner’s chief proclaimed that the “evil” in Russia’s military leadership must stop and vowed to overthrow Russian military leaders.
The straw that seems to have broken the camel’s back is the accusation of the Russian army of launching a deadly missile attack against its troops.
The Russian government denied the accusations and opened a criminal file against Prigozhin for “calling rebellion”, a crime that carries prison terms of between 12 and 20 years.
image copyrightGetty Images
Between Moscow and Rostov there is a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers by road, but fearing an invasion by mercenaries, the authorities in the capital reinforced security in various parts of the city.
Reports from the Russian city of Saint Petersburg say that riot police and the national guard have carried out raids on the office of the mercenary group.
A local news outlet said masked men armed with automatic rifles had taken up positions on a bridge near a hotel and restaurant linked to Wagner.
The mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said they were taking what he called anti-terror measures.
Armored vehicles have been seen on the streets and additional checkpoints have been introduced on the roads.
image copyrightGetty Images
Caption,
Russian soldiers guard the headquarters of the Wagner Group in Saint Petersburg
Further south, the governor of the Voronezh region urged people to avoid a highway because a military convoy was on the move.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reacted with a tweet in which it limited itself to stating that it is “observing” the situation.
At the White House, a spokesman indicated that US President Joe Biden is aware of the news coming from Russia.
The internal struggle, red hot
The new clash between the government and the mercenaries marks a major escalation of internal fighting within Russia with unforeseeable consequences.
In his first remarks, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky described the events as a sign of Moscow’s “obvious weakness.”
He said that until now, Russia had used propaganda to mask the stupidity of its government, but now there was so much chaos that no lie could hide it.
image copyrightReuters
Caption,
The leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been accused of inciting an “armed rebellion”.
How it all started?
Prigozhin claimed that “a large number” of his fighters were killed by a Russian army attack on a Wagner camp, though he provided no evidence to support this claim.
Russia’s state channel Channel 1 interrupted regular programming to broadcast an “urgent news bulletin.”
The announcement recapitulated earlier statements about Prigozhin and the Wagner Group, saying the mercenary leader’s video of the alleged Russian attack on his troops is false and that the Russian Defense Ministry denies attacking the group.
However, Prigozhin was adamant in his decision to counterattack.
“Those who killed our boys and took tens of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers [en la guerra en Ucrania] They will be punished,” he said.
image copyrightGetty Images
Caption,
Wagner has repeatedly accused Moscow of not doing enough to prevent deaths from its mercenaries. In the photo, graves of Wagner soldiers killed in the Ukrainian war.
“I ask you not to resist. Anyone who does will be considered a threat and destroyed. This applies to any checkpoints and aircraft on our way,” he threatened.
He added: “This is not a military coup, but a march for justice. Our actions do not interfere with the troops in any way.”
Critical of the invasion of Ukraine
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that “all Prigozhin’s reports spread on social media” about the Russian attacks on the Wagner camps “are not true and are an informational provocation.”
This comes after a video was released in May in which the Wagner leader, surrounded by the bodies of his troops, reprimanded Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valerii Gerasimov for not supply them with enough ammunition.
And this Friday Prigozhin asserted that the war in Ukraine began “so that Shoigu could become a marshal.”
“The Defense Ministry is trying to mislead the public, mislead the president, and tell a story that there was some crazy aggression by Ukraine; that, along with the entire NATO bloc, Ukraine was planning to attack us,” he alleged.
General Sergei Surovikin, deputy head of Russian forces in Ukraine whose leadership Prigozhin praised long ago, called on Wagner’s leader to “stop the convoys and return them to their bases.”
“We are of one blood, we are warriors,” he said in a video.
And he added: “You must not play the enemy’s game at a difficult time for our country.”
Now you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss out on our best content.
#stab #Putin #accuses #leader #Wagner #Group #inciting #armed #rebellion #reinforces #security