We didn’t want to overthrow Putin’s government, Wagner chief says
The head of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group says its recent aborted mutiny was not an attempt to overthrow the government of President Vladimir Putin.
Yevgeny Prigozhin released an 11-minute recording Monday, explaining that the armed march he led on Moscow over the weekend was “to demonstrate our protest, not to topple the government.”
The Wagner boss said the fleeting mutiny was intended to prevent his forces “from being dismantled.”
In Moscow, Prigozhin stands accused of mounting a coup.
Wagner has been fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. Its leader said on June 23 his fighters had crossed the border from Ukraine into Russia, entering the city of Rostov-on-Don. Prigozhin threatened that his men would destroy anyone who stood in their way.
He claimed his forces had shot down a Russian military helicopter that “opened fire on a civilian convoy.”
Prigozhin also accused Russian forces of striking a Wagner military camp and killing “a huge amount” of his fighters – a claim the Russian Ministry of Defense denied and labeled an “informational provocation.”
The mutiny, which lasted less than 24 hours, came to an end after the Wagner leader agreed to turn his troops back on their path to the Russian capital.
The agreement was brokered by Belarus. Moscow said Prigozhin agreed to a deal with President Putin to stop the mutiny in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
President Putin had said Wagner’s “betrayal” and “any actions that fracture our unity” are “a stab in the back of our country and our people.”
On Monday, Prigozhin said he regretted hitting Russian aviation and claimed his forces turned around “to avoid spilling blood of Russian soldiers.”
The Wagner leader, a former close ally of Putin, has criticized Russia’s military leadership and their handling of the war in Ukraine, saying if his troops carried out the first attacks in the military campaign in Ukraine, the war would have been over much sooner.
Prigozhin once also threatened to “go all the way” to topple Russia's military leadership. He accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov of not giving his forces ammunition.
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