Power struggle in Russia
Kremlin: Criminal proceedings against Wagner boss are discontinued
Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. photo
© -/Prigozhin Press Service/AP/dpa
The open power struggle in Russia between mercenary chief Prigozhin and Kremlin boss Putin seems to have been settled. The armed insurrection averted for the time being. But the situation is still unclear.
According to the Kremlin, the criminal case against the head of the Russian private army Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, for the armed uprising against the military leadership will be dropped. Prigozhin himself will go to Belarus, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
The fighters of the Wagner troop should not be prosecuted in view of their services at the front in Ukraine, as Peskov explained. According to his own statements, the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko had persuaded Prigozhin to give up his uprising.
Prigozhin himself did not comment directly on this. Shortly before, however, he had announced that he would stop the advance of his units on the Russian capital Moscow. “Our columns are turning and heading back to the camps in the opposite direction,” he said in a voice message published by his press service on Telegram. So far, “not a drop of our fighters’ blood” has been spilled, said Prigozhin. “Now is the moment when blood could be shed.” That’s why it’s time to turn the columns around, he justified the retreat.
At first it was not clear whether, in addition to impunity, other concessions were made or promised to Prigozhin in order to stop his troops from advancing on Moscow.
The power struggle between Prigozhin and the Russian army leadership, which had been smoldering for months, escalated on Saturday night. The 62-year-old accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering an attack on a Wagner troop military camp. The unit fought alongside regular Russian troops in Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine and played a key role in the capture of the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast. However, there has been a dispute over competencies and ammunition supplies for months.
After the alleged attack on the Wagner camp, which the Defense Ministry in Moscow promptly denied, Prigozhin announced a “march of justice” to punish those responsible. On Saturday, his troops initially occupied military facilities in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. It later became known that other units had marched towards Moscow. According to Prigozhin, the heads of his units were recently only around 200 kilometers from the Russian capital.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called his former confidant Prigozhin a “traitor” on Saturday morning. The authorities have been investigating the oligarch, who became rich with government contracts, since Friday evening and threatened him with a prison sentence of 12 to 20 years.