The Moscow Times is collecting all the latest breaking news and developments around Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner Group.
While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of our reporting, claims and counter-claims are sometimes impossible to verify.
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group on Friday accused the country’s military leadership of ordering strikes on the group’s camps and killing a “huge” number of forces.
In an extraordinary declaration against the Defense Ministry, with whom he has been feuding publicly for months, Yevgeny Prigozhin vowed to “stop” Russia’s top military brass and urged ordinary Russians to remain calm.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Vladimir Putin was aware of the “unfolding situation” around Prigozhin and that “all necessary measures” were being taken.
Russia’s Federal Security Agency (FSB) has filed criminal charges against Prigozhin for “inciting an armed uprising,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said late Friday.
The charges are punishable by 12 to 20 years in prison.
High-ranking Russian officials who spoke to The Moscow Times on condition of anonymity warned against drawing premature conclusions as the situation is developing under the “fog of war.”
But a source close to the Kremlin said that Prigozhin’s threats of revolt were the result of the competing military power structures that had emerged amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“The problem is that in the case of Prigozhin, we got a classic example of two armies and many decision-making centers in the system,” the source told The Moscow Times.
“The concern that this would cause problems was debated at meetings in the Kremlin and in the government. But the state management system in Russia has a lot of inertia — most in the Kremlin would throw up their hands, shake their heads and say, ‘Yes, that’s true. But it’s not our business. Let others sort it out.’
“Now it’s time to sort it out.”
In a furious audio message released by his spokespeople Friday evening, Prigozhin said Wagner’s leadership had determined that “the evil that the military leadership of the country brings must be stopped.”
“There are 25,000 of us and we are going to look into why there’s total lawlessness in the country.”
Following online speculation of his previous comments that he had de facto announced an armed revolt against Russia’s military, Prigozhin said: “It is not a coup d’etat. It’s a march of justice. Our actions do not impede [regular Russian] soldiers at all.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said that Prigozhin’s statements “do not correspond to reality,” calling them a “provocation.”
Law enforcement authorities have stepped up security measures in Moscow, the state-run TASS news agency said around midnight.
“Al the most important facilities, state authorities and transport infrastructure facilities have been taken under enhanced protection,” TASS cited law enforcement agencies as saying.
Video and photos shared on social media appeared to show military vehicles deployed on the streets of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don — where Prigozhin said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is located — as well as in central Moscow.
There appeared to be no significant police presence at the Wagner Group’s headquarters in St. Petersburg.
Independent news outlets reported that Russian state media outlets have been barred from citing any of Prigozhin’s statements. The reports could not be independently verified.
In a video posted to Telegram by Andrei Rudyenko, a state-affiliated war correspondent, Russian General Sergei Surovikin called on Wagner fighters to lay down their arms.
“The enemy is just waiting for the political situation in our country to deteriorate. It’s wrong to play into the enemy’s hands during these difficult times,” he said appearing haggard and holding a rifle on his right leg.
“We are of the same blood. We are warriors. I urge you to stop.”
iStories reported that the Kremlin had already been aware of Prigozhin “planning something” as early as last week.
“The presidential administration is in a panic, and they’re not excluding the possibility of a civil war breaking out,” iStories quoted a source in the Kremlin as saying following Prigzohin’s statements on Friday night.
But as military vehicles rode through the streets of Rostov-on-Don and Moscow, the Kremlin merely released a video of Putin delivering a message marking the Youth Day holiday.
This story is being updated.
AFP contributed reporting.
