Founder of Wagner private mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves a cemetery before the funeral of a Russian military blogger who was killed in a bomb attack in a St Petersburg cafe, in Moscow, on April 8.YULIA MOROZOVA/Reuters
Russia’s FSB security services accused the head of the powerful Wagner mercenary group of plotting a coup in Moscow, in a dramatic escalation of infighting stirred up by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The FSB announced on Friday that it had opened a case against Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, hours after Mr. Prigozhin claimed that a Wagner camp had been hit by rockets fired by the regular Russian army, resulting in what he alleged was a “huge number” of losses. Afterward, Mr. Prigozhin declared that he had 25,000 fighters ready to “stop the evil that the military leadership is carrying out.”
If the split between Mr. Prigozhin and the Russian military leadership dissolves into fighting, it could ease the path for a large-scale Ukrainian counteroffensive that began earlier this month. That campaign, which has only made incremental advances so far, could gain momentum from any divisions in the Russian ranks.
The bulk of Wagner’s mercenaries are deployed in eastern Ukraine, most recently near the city of Bakhmut, where they were at the forefront of a nine-month siege that resulted in its eventual capture. Mr. Prigozhin implied Friday that he now intended to move against the Russian command structure.
“Anyone who tries to resist – we will consider this a threat and eliminate them immediately, as well as any obstacles in our way,” he said. “I’m asking everyone to stay calm, not respond to provocations, and remain inside your homes. It’s best not to come out into the street along the route we’re following.”
Russia’s security services appeared to take the threat seriously. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that anti-terrorist measures were being taken in the Russian capital, including additional checks on roads. Videos posted to social media late Friday showed military trucks and armoured fighting vehicles patrolling the streets of the capital. Additional units were reportedly deployed to the southwestern city of Rostov-on-Don, which Mr. Prigozhin said Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had used as his headquarters while ordering the alleged strike on the Wagner base.
Just after 2 a.m. on Saturday morning Moscow time, Mr. Prigozhin posted that his troops had crossed from Ukraine into Russia and had entered the Rostov region. He said his men were ready to go “all the way” and would destroy anyone who opposed them. It wasn’t clear where Mr. Prigozhin himself was.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the long-ruling Russian leader was being kept abreast of developments. “President Putin has been briefed on all events around Prigozhin. The necessary measures are being taken,” Mr. Peskov said.
The FSB, meanwhile, called on Russians to “not make irreversible mistakes” and “to not carry out Prigozhin’s criminal and treacherous orders, and to take steps to detain him.” Kremlin-controlled media reported that Russia’s National Guard and riot police had been put on alert in Moscow.
The 62-year-old Mr. Prigozhin posted on his Telegram channel that he only had a quarrel with Mr. Shoigu and the military leadership – and that “presidential power, the government, the Internal Affairs Ministry, the National Guard and other structures will work as they did before.” However, it was clear from the militarized response that the Kremlin perceived him as a direct threat, marking the apparent end of a long partnership between Mr. Prigozhin and Mr. Putin.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the outspoken millionaire head of the private military contractor Wagner, speaks during his interview at an unspecified location. Grab taken from video and released by Prigozhin Press Service on Friday, June 23, 2023The Associated Press
Mr. Prigozhin, a convicted thief who spent nine years in prison during the Soviet era, first rose to prominence via the restaurant business in his native St. Petersburg. He became known as “Putin’s chef” as his Concord Catering company won a host of Kremlin contracts in the early 2000s. Mr. Prigozhin personally served food to not only Mr. Putin, but also to visiting heads of state including former U.S. president George W. Bush and former French president Jacques Chirac.
Mr. Prigozhin gained international infamy after the 2016 U.S. election, during which his Internet Research Agency “troll farm” was accused of using social media to support the candidacy of Donald Trump, leading to U.S. grand jury indictments against Mr. Prigozhin and the Internet Research Agency for election meddling.
Few believe that Mr. Prigozhin would have waded so deeply into U.S. politics without Mr. Putin’s direction. Wagner mercenaries were another tool that carried out the Kremlin’s wishes – fighting for Russian interests in places such as Syria, Mali and South Sudan – while giving Mr. Putin plausible deniability.
But strains between Wagner and the regular Russian military emerged as soon as the 16-month-old invasion of Ukraine started to go awry. In October, shortly after Ukrainian forces routed Russian troops in the eastern Kharkiv region, Mr. Prigozhin suggested that Russia’s top generals should be sent to the front lines themselves “barefoot with machine guns.”
During the subsequent battle of Bakhmut, Mr. Prigozhin frequently complained that his fighters were being “starved” of ammunition and support, personally blaming Mr. Shoigu and Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov. Still Wagner forces – bolstered by tens of thousands of convicts that Mr. Prigozhin recruited directly from prisons – were seen as some of the most effective Russian units fighting in Ukraine.
On Friday, Mr. Prigozhin said Mr. Shoigu and his generals had misled Mr. Putin into launching the war against Ukraine for their own “self-promotion” by playing up the threat posed by Ukraine’s increasing co-operation with the NATO military alliance.
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“The Armed Forces of Ukraine were not going to attack Russia with the NATO bloc,” Mr. Prigozhin said in a half-hour video posted by his press service. “The Russian Defence Ministry is deceiving the public and the President.”
Ukraine’s military appeared to be enjoying the chaos. “We are watching,” the country’s Ministry of Defence posted as Moscow was put on alert Friday. There were also reports that Ukrainian units had launched a fresh attack toward Bakhmut.
With a report from Reuters