Prigozhin Says He was Not Trying to Do a Coup, Just a Coup-Like Staff Shuffle

Update: 

Sorry, Idk why I posted that stupid Newsweek article. I wrote a lot of long stuff today and this was my last piece, so I dialed it in.

I still don’t have a transcript, but here is the point-by-point summary of the debrief:

• As a result of intrigues, ill-conceived decisions, Wagner PMC was supposed to cease to exist on July 1, 2023.
• PMC Wagner did not want to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, because this would lead to a complete loss of combat capability.
• Those fighters who were ready to go to the Ministry of Defense did so. But it was the minimum amount, estimated at 1-2%.
• PMC Wagner wanted to become a part of any other structure in order to be useful to their Motherland, but they were not heard.
• Wagner were going to move as a convoy on June 30 to Rostov and publicly hand over the equipment near the headquarters of the SMO.
• “We did not show any aggression but we were under a missile attack. About 30 Wagner PMC fighters were killed. This was the trigger that we should move forward immediately.”
• During the entire march, which lasted 24 hours, Wagner covered 780 km, not a single soldier on the ground was killed. “We regret that we were forced to strike at air assets. But these weapons delivered missile strikes.”
• During the march, all military facilities that were along the road were blocked and neutralized.
• None of the fighters was forced into this campaign, and everyone knew the ultimate goal.
• The goal was to prevent the destruction of the PMC “Wagner” and to bring to justice the people who with their unprofessional actions made a huge number of mistakes during the military defense. This was demanded by the public, all the military personnel who saw us during the march supported us.
• We stopped at the moment when the first assault detachment, which approached 200 kilometers, made reconnaissance of the area and it was obvious that a lot of blood would be shed.
• Our decision to turn around were based on two factors: the fact that we did not want to shed Russian blood. The second factor is that we went to demonstrate our protest, and not to overthrow the government in the country.
• At this time, Lukashenko extended his hand and offered to find solutions for the further work of Wagner PMC.
• Our march of justice showed the most serious security problems throughout the country.
• We showed a master class of what February 24, 2022 should have looked like.

I don’t know if I can believe Lukashenko is really going to let him work and set up a new base and all that. That seems like too much.

Maybe he’ll let him work as a chef.

Anyway.

Original article below. 

Who the hell knows what the context of the planning of this thing was. Prigozhin had to have done some serious planning. He foreshadowed it, preparing people with those bullshit videos about ammo shortages and collapsing front lines. Then he must have made some serious deals with people to get everything lined up with the necessary FSB and military people so he could just waltz into the Southern Command without getting popped.

What is pretty clear is that the decision to pull the trigger was made in a drunken stupor, and when he sobered up, he was hit by the reality situation.

It was really weird because the whole thing seemed so tight, the way he was able to move so quickly without getting killed, but then it was like “wait, what – you are sending your guys to drive to Moscow and then… do what exactly? Bum rush the Kremlin?”

On Monday, apparently from Belarus, he made gave some reflective insight on the way events unfolded. It didn’t include a lot of reflection. It’s a typical situation of waking up with a hangover and realizing you acted like a real asshole to your friends, and then saying “well, I’m gonna need a few drinks before I call them to smooth things over.”

(I haven’t gotten a chance to translate the full thing, so I’m just going to quote this shitty article, because I just did a serious work day.)

Newsweek:

On Monday, Prigozhin broke his silence in a series of audio recordings shared to his official Telegram account. In the clips, he insisted that his intent was not for his forces to target Russian President Vladimir Putin or overthrow the totality of the Russian government.

“We didn’t march to overthrow Russia’s leadership,” Prigozhin said, according to a translation of the audio from BBC News. “The aim of the march was to avoid destruction of Wagner and to hold to account the officials who through their unprofessional actions have committed a massive number of errors.”

Ah, yes.

He didn’t appreciate the unprofessionalism.

Prigozhin claimed the Wagner Group “categorically” opposed the part of the deal that aimed “to close Wagner on July 1, 2023, and to incorporate it into the [Russian] defense ministry.” The outfit’s commanders, he claimed, refused to accept contracts with the ministry.

The oligarch further confirmed the involvement of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in brokering the deal to end the mutiny, stating that the leader “extended his hand and offered to find ways for Wagner to continue its work legally.”

That can’t be right.

You can’t just do a mutiny and be allowed to continue working.

Prigozhin also used the clip to continue sharing criticisms of the Russian military, claiming that Wagner’s brief mutiny showed “serious security problems across the entire country” and claiming that the invasion of Ukraine would have been more successful if his troops had carried out the first attacks.

The Wagner leader notably appeared to go silent after announcing that his troops would be standing down on Saturday, not releasing public statements until sharing the audio on Monday. This prompted some speculation about his whereabouts and intentions. Prigozhin has not revealed his location in any of the posts he made on Monday.

The fact that this is all taking place on Telegram is the funniest thing of my entire life.

Here are the emoji replies to his audio post:

If he’s going to just keep posting drunken rants and everyone is going to be replying like “shut up you drunk old faggot,” that is definitely big time lols.

But…

It really doesn’t make much sense that he wasn’t assassinated, and if he’s really going to be allowed to work, that is just nuts.

This seems to send a message that there are no consequences for this sort of behavior.

Putin made a tough call in a situation that could have escalated rapidly, but I mean… if Lukashenko was on the phone with him and realized he was drunk and the whole thing was a joke, he could have just hung up and sent in a kill squad. His own men were already abandoning him.

I understand him and Putin were good friends, and I wouldn’t want to have my friend killed because he did some heinous shit when he was sloshed, but still.

Anyway, what is done is done. Putin came out looking great. But I do hope there is no one else thinking about doing this sort of thing, because “no punishment” is an unfortunate precedent.

Like I said yesterday, I don’t think the deal can be reneged on. He can’t be killed. But you could put him on house arrest, take away his social media privileges, and make sure he’s got a gun with a single bullet in it in his desk.

But I’m sure Putin knows what he’s doing. The Wagner guys are valuable, and maybe there is some contingent that is loyal to him after this mess.

Also, I really do need to get the full translation later today. He is now saying that no one died, which is not what he was saying before.