For years, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary chief who carried out a short rise up towards the Russian army, had been a loyal supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
In latest months, he continued to keep away from instantly criticizing Mr. Putin, whilst he more and more used social media to lambaste Russia’s army, accusing its leaders of treason and blaming them for failing to offer his forces with sufficient assets.
But during the last two days, he assailed the rationale for Mr. Putin’s so-called particular army operation in Ukraine, despatched his forces to grab the southern Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don, a army hub, and commenced to maneuver Wagner convoys towards Moscow. Mr. Putin mobilized Russian troops to quell what he known as an armed rise up, and the Belarusian president, a Putin ally, negotiated a halt to the Wagner advance.
Here’s a have a look at Mr. Prigozhin’s historical past and a few of the claims he has made:
December 2016
The United States imposed sanctions towards 15 Russian entities, together with Mr. Prigozhin, for his or her dealings in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and in Ukraine, the place Russian-backed separatists seized territory the identical 12 months. The Treasury Department focused businesspeople who had been associates of Mr. Putin or had been concerned in actions that aided in Russia’s destabilization of Ukraine.
February 2018
Mr. Prigozhin was considered one of 13 Russians indicted by a federal grand jury within the United States for interfering within the 2016 presidential election by means of the Internet Research Agency, a troll manufacturing facility that unfold falsehoods and waged info warfare in assist of the marketing campaign of Donald J. Trump.
September 2022
Mr. Prigozhin publicly acknowledged for the primary time that he was the founding father of the Wagner mercenary group, whose fighters had been deployed alongside Russian troops in Ukraine. Previously, Wagner fighters had operated in assist of the Kremlin’s army campaigns in Africa and the Middle East, often battling towards U.S. forces.
October 2022
Mr. Prigozhin was considered one of two highly effective supporters of Mr. Putin to publicly activate Russia’s army management after it ordered a retreat from Lyman, a key metropolis in jap Ukraine, emphasizing that the retreat was a significant embarrassment for the Kremlin.
November 2022
Just a day earlier than the U.S. midterms, Mr. Prigozhin sardonically boasted that Russia was interfering within the election.
“Gentlemen, we have interfered, we do interfere and we will interfere,” Mr. Prigozhin stated in an announcement posted by his catering firm. “We will do it carefully, precisely, surgically as we are capable of doing it. During our targeted operations, we will remove both kidneys and liver at once.”
At the time, Wagner troops had been advancing on the jap Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut, which had been below Russian assault for months.
February 2023
Mr. Prigozhin accused two Russian army leaders of treason in a sequence of hostile audio messages. He claimed that the Russian protection minister, Sergei Okay. Shoigu, and its most senior normal, Valery V. Gerasimov, had been withholding ammunition and provides from his fighters to attempt to destroy Wagner.
Earlier within the month, Mr. Prigozhin had stated that Wagner would not recruit fighters from Russian prisons, a observe that had raised criticism from human rights teams however helped gasoline Moscow’s advances in jap Ukraine.
May 2023
Mr. Prigozhin issued a sequence of inflammatory statements. He as soon as once more accused Russia’s army paperwork of ravenous Wagner forces of mandatory ammunition and threatened to withdraw them from Bakhmut. Days later, he appeared to backtrack on that risk after saying he had been promised extra arms.
In late May, Wagner forces stated they’d captured Bakhmut, a declare it had made beforehand as properly. Ukrainian officers rapidly denied the declare, however days later acknowledged the lack of the town. Russian state media saved Mr. Prigozhin’s identify out of its protection of these occasions.
Earlier within the month, Mr. Prigozhin dismissed a report from The Washington Post saying that leaked intelligence confirmed he had supplied to share Russian Army positions with Ukraine.
June 2023
Tensions between Mr. Prigozhin and Russia’s army rose larger. Mr. Prigozhin stated Wagner wouldn’t adjust to an order that will require it to signal a proper contract with Russia’s protection ministry by July.
The feud quickly escalated on Friday of final week, when Mr. Prigozhin launched a 30-minute video wherein he described his nation’s invasion of Ukraine as a “racket” perpetrated by a corrupt elite chasing cash and glory with out concern for Russian lives. He additionally challenged the Kremlin’s declare that Kyiv had been on the verge of attacking Russian-backed separatist territory in Ukraine’s east when Russia invaded.
“The war wasn’t needed to return Russian citizens to our bosom, nor to demilitarize or denazify Ukraine,” Mr. Prigozhin stated, referring to Mr. Putin’s preliminary justifications for the struggle. “The war was needed so that a bunch of animals could simply exult in glory.”
Mr. Prigozhin additionally accused Mr. Shoigu, the Russian minister of protection, of orchestrating a lethal assault with missiles and helicopters on camps to the rear of the Russian traces in Ukraine, the place his troopers had been bivouacked.
The Russian protection ministry denied the allegations, saying in an announcement that the messages Mr. Prigozhin had posted about supposed strikes on Wagner camps “do not correspond to reality.” His account of the assaults stays unconfirmed.
Mr. Putin mobilized Russian troops on Saturday to defend Moscow from what he known as an armed rise up by Mr. Prigozhin, whose forces had claimed management of Rostov-on-Don and had been seen transferring north alongside a freeway towards the Russian capital. Then, in a shock flip of occasions, the Belarusian president, Alexsandr G. Lukashenko, stated he had secured Mr. Prigozhin settlement to halt his forces’ advance. Mr. Prigozhin confirmed that he was turning his forces round.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, stated that Mr. Prigozhin would flee to Belarus, and that Russia’s army operations in Ukraine would proceed unchanged.
Source: www.nytimes.com