“Nobody thought to change themselves” – DW – 06/24/2023

The employer Wagner mercenary group, Evgeny PrigogineHe responded this Saturday (06.24.2023) after the speech of the Russian leader Vladimir Putin His men are not traitors and will not turn themselves in to the authorities. The Kremlin leader said on television that it was an armed uprising by paramilitary forces It is a “betrayal”. And its instigators must face justice.

“Regarding treason against the motherland, the president is deeply mistaken. We are patriots. We fought, we fought, no one plans to surrender at the request of the president, the Federal Security Service (FSB) or anyone,” Prigozhin said in a new audio posted on his Telegram channel. He added that he and his men did not want the country to “continue to live in corruption, lies and bureaucracy”.

Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov opened a criminal case “in connection with an attempt to organize an armed rebellion,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Prigozhin, a former close ally of Putin, kept his personal army fighting in Ukraine but has been locked in a row with Moscow’s military leadership in recent months, repeatedly blaming Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. Mass Deaths of Militants in Ukraine Invasion.

“They stole and now they don’t save”

After Putin’s speech, Prigozhin charged in his message that “when we fought in Africa, they told us we needed Africa, and then they abandoned it because they stole the aid money.” When the Ukrainian campaign began, Wagner’s fighters went to fight, he asserted, “but the ammunition, weapons and all the money for them was stolen.”

“On the other hand, for today’s case, if someone advances towards Moscow, the authorities save for their own benefit. Now they save nothing: they attack peaceful columns with airplanes and helicopters,” he condemned. Russian airstrikes against paramilitary vehicles advancing towards Moscow through the Voronezh region.

DZC (EFE, Reuters, AFP)