Will the security services interfere next time there’s an inter-elite squabble?” People can see that a relatively small armed group can make it all the way to Moscow, and it’s frightening to think what could happen next. I wouldn’t wait for a revolution, but Putin’s power is weakening. “I think soon we’ll learn the terms of the deal with Prigozhin. But no, it’s just another peaceful city, unlike what’s happening in Ukraine.” I spent the weekend in Karelia and thought when I returned to Moscow I’d see barricades, fires, soldiers on the street. Then when he turned his forces around, that caught me totally by surprise. “But I had a small hope that if he came to power, people like him don’t last long, and then Russia will be, finally, on the path to reform. There are going to be some major changes in Russia, and not for the better.’ I can’t say I shared the excitement of certain oppositionists that here comes Prigozhin and he’s gonna topple Putin. “When I heard was crossing the border, I thought, ‘Alright, here we go.
“It left me totally confused,” Alexey Krapukhin, a member of the liberal party Yabloko, told Al Jazeera. The spectacle this weekend baffled observers of the Russia-Ukraine war as well as Russians themselves. The convict-turned-oligarch was known as “Putin’s chef” because his restaurant and catering business was often awarded lucrative Russian government contracts. Prigozhin has held close ties with the Kremlin chief too. Lukashenko is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prigozhin was told he could go into exile in Belarus and charges against him would be dropped if he ended his mutiny. Prigozhin mutinied against the Russian high command and captured the country’s 10th largest city before marching his fighters towards the capital.īut the Wagner convoy stopped within 200km (124 miles) of Moscow, after a deal was seemingly struck with the help of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. And today, everything in Rostov is calm.” By midnight, under the extremely warm reaction of the townsfolk, they gathered in a column and left just as quickly as they appeared. Every Rostovite now has a photo with a tank. “They shouted in support of the Wagnerites, gave them cigarettes, hugged and shook hands. “By the time I returned to the city centre in the evening, there were already crowds of people, families with children, waving Wagner and Russian flags,” he recalled. Ivan said he filmed a now-viral video of a cleaner nonchalantly sweeping the street next to a tank. The presence of heavily armed men did not appear to bother the locals, who took pictures and struck up conversations with the mercenaries.
“I went to the headquarters of the Southern Federal District, and at every intersection, there stood armed Wagnerites, and the headquarters itself was already surrounded by soldiers and tanks with their barrels pointed towards the building,” Ivan said.ĭespite being under military occupation, the atmosphere in the city was very calm, Ivan said. They crossed the border with Ukraine and were ready to go “all the way” against the Russian military, the Wagner boss said. “That morning, I told my friends it was all fake news, to which they responded by sending me photos of tanks,” he told Al Jazeera.Īfter months of feuding with Russia’s military chiefs, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the feared Wagner Group, stepped up his fight and ordered his mercenaries to seize the port city of more than 1 million people. At first, 30-year-old Ivan from Rostov-an-Don did not believe an armed uprising was taking place in his southern Russian hometown on Saturday.
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