Al Jazeera published this article:
Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin defended his “march on Moscow” with a convoy of tanks, saying the move was not an attempted coup and was conducted as a protest against Russia’s military leadership.
On Monday he called the move a reaction to an attack on his forces that killed about 30 fighters in the first audio statement since the aborted armed rebellion he staged on Saturday.
“We started our march because of an injustice. We went to demonstrate our protest and not to overthrow power in the country,” Prigozhin said in an 11-minute audio message.
He did not offer any details as to where he was or what his future plans are.
Prigozhin said his fighters had the support of “happy” civilians in towns they went through as they advanced on Moscow.
“In Russian towns, civilians met us with Russian flags and the symbols of Wagner,” he said. “They were all happy when we passed through.”
The convoy stopped 200km (125 miles) short of Moscow and had “blocked all military infrastructure” including air bases along its path, he added.
Russian media reported a criminal probe against Prigozhin continued, and some lawmakers called for his head.
Most serious political crisis
Earlier Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu made his first public appearance since the uprising that demanded his ouster, in a video aimed at projecting a sense of order after the country’s most serious political crisis in decades.
A feud between the Wagner Group leader and Russia’s military brass that has festered throughout the war erupted into a mutiny that saw the mercenaries leave Ukraine to seize a military headquarters in a southern Russian city and roll seemingly unopposed towards Moscow – before turning around after less than 24 hours.
The Kremlin said it made a deal for Prigozhin to move to Belarus and receive amnesty, along with his soldiers.
There was no confirmation of his whereabouts Monday, although a popular Russian news channel on Telegram reported he was seen at a hotel in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has proposed ways in which Russia’s Wagner mercenary group could continue to operate, Prigozhin said.
“Lukashenko held out his hand and offered to find solutions for the continuation of the work of the Wagner private military company in a legal jurisdiction,” he said in the audio message.
A master class
Prigozhin said the way Wagner had been able to seize the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don without bloodshed had been testament to the effectiveness of his fighters.
“We showed a master class, as it should have been on February 24, 2022. We did not have the goal of overthrowing the existing regime and the legally elected government,” he said.
Prigozhin renewed an allegation – so far unsupported by evidence – that the Russian military attacked a Wagner camp with missiles and then helicopters, and said this was the immediate trigger for what he called the “march of justice”.
Wagner stopped its advance towards Moscow at the moment when it realised it would have to confront waiting Russian troops, and blood would inevitably be shed, he said, reiterating an assertion he made on Saturday.
Prigozhin, a former close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said he regretted his fighters had to kill Russian soldiers who attacked their convoy from helicopters.
He also again complained about a military order that all volunteer units – including Wagner – must sign contracts by July 1, placing themselves under the control of Russia’s defence ministry.
Fewer than 2 percent of Wagner’s men have signed up, Prigozhin added. “The aim of the march was to avoid the destruction of Wagner.”
TWEET YOUR COMMENT