2023-06-27 23:51:59
by Marco Imarisio
2,500 soldiers in the Kremlin: «Thank you, comrades. You saved our homeland from civil war.” A solemnity that gives the measure of the narrow escape.
All roads lead to the square of the cathedrals. It was like this in the sixteenth century, at the time of Ivan the Terrible, and since then that place in the center of the Kremlin became the scene of the coronations and funerals of the Tsars and patriarchs, where even today every Russian president takes the oath as soon as he is elected. At the end of the morning, Vladimir Putin it welcomes 2,500 soldiers and soldiers from the army, the National Guard, the FSB and the Federal Vigilance Service, representing all those “who guaranteed order and legality during the rebellion”.
Sometimes the setting speaks louder than words. And by itself it already serves to give the measure of the narrow escape, which the president acknowledges with a certain solemnity. «Estimated comrades, today in this historic place I want to thank you, defenders of the Motherland who, in such a difficult moment for the country, have interposed your bodies in a mutiny whose only result would have been chaos. With your commitment, you have safeguarded the stability of the institutions, protecting our beloved homeland from upheavals that would have led us to civil war”.
The difference with what has just been heard on the news at the start of the day on the First state channel could not be more striking. The opening service repeats in full the short address to the nation the previous evening. The line returns to the studio. The conductor comments with these words. “The situation is now normalized, and the consequences of what happened have been eliminated.” The only one authorized to call things a spade is Putin, who returned within a few hours to reappear as Commander-in-Chief.
«People drawn into the rebellion immediately understood that the army and the people were not on their side, and they gave up on their intentions. Your rapid and effective deployment has prevented dangerous developments for the stability of the country, avoiding that there were civilian casualties”. The ceremony, not far from Putin, was also attended by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, making his first public appearance after some time, and this too is a very specific signal. He will remain in his place, at least for now, although his overthrow was the main objective of the military insurrection.
Putin never names Evgeny Prigozhin, which just yesterday saw the FSB annul all charges for Saturday’s revolt. If ever there was a stone guest, it’s him in Russia these days. The direct message to the tutelary deity of Wagner is delivered shortly after, loud and clear. “First of all I want to underline a fact that you may already know,” Putin begins in front of the soldiers he has invited to his office. “Everything owned by the Wagner Group has been fully financed by the Ministry of Defense and our budget. From May 2022 to May of this year alone, the state provided financial support amounting to 86 billion rubles”, a figure equivalent to one billion dollars. In February 2022, during his last meeting with Emmanuel Macron, Putin reiterated for the umpteenth time that the Russian state had nothing to do with Wagner.
Again, adds the president with a look that does not bode well, the owner of Concord, Prigozhin’s company that supplies the army with food, earned another 937 million dollars. «I hope that during this work, no one has stolen anything, or at least stolen as little as possible. But we’ll clarify.” It hardly needs to be recalled that many opponents of Putin, first among them Aleksej Navalny, began their descent into Russian prisons with a first conviction for financial crimes. Meanwhile, Viktor Zolotov, former head of security to the president and current director of the National Guard, informs journalists of the decision that the latter will be authorized to use heavy weapons and tanks. Prigozhin pointed the way to Moscow. But from today it will be much more difficult to walk it, for anyone who is tempted to try.
June 27, 2023 (change June 27, 2023 | 23:51)
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