Still shot from the interview of Konstantin Dolgov and Yevgeny Prigozhin
A pro-Kremlin technologist linked to someone in the president’s administration lost his job a day after interviewing the founder of the private military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin, who gained worldwide fame, has not stopped speaking to the media in recent months, but this interview, if Konstantin Dolgov is to be believed, was the reason why he left the “Telega ONLINE” project, otherwise supporting the government.
“They told me in plain text: I am fired because of the interview with Prigozhin,” he explained in “Telegram”. Staff of the project “confessed to me that the decision on the dismissal came after a call “from above”, he continues. “These mysterious “ringers” of something took offense at Prigozhin’s statements, sounded in his answers. Evgeny Viktorovich, it seems, they can’t do anything.” The position of the project is that he himself planned to leave.
Some pointed out that Dolgov, a former pro-Russian activist from Kharkiv, tried for hooliganism, is a name with a solid background, who worked with the “ideologist of Putinism” Vladislav Surkov, later – and with the deputy head of the presidential administration Sergey Kiriyenko. According to the BBC Russian service, the choice of Dolgov as an interviewer draws attention to information about a conflict between Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (who is at odds with Prigozhin) and Kiriyenko himself, which came days ago from former officer Igor Girkin – with the possibility that it may turn out to be true .
There were also comments that it was Dolgov who said that at the event where the military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was blown up, it could have been Prigozhin. The founder of “Wagner” himself said that he would help Dolgov, and turned to “Telega”: “Try to shut my mouth.”
Crisis in the Kremlin or a signal to Prigozhin: why was the Russian “military blogger” killed
What might have worried the Russian authorities – if they really did?
The following is a summary of the sharpest messages sent by Prigozhin that stood out in Russian publications. In places, the retelling prevails instead of the direct transmission of words, given the vulgar, offensive (but also characteristic of him) language used by the PMC founder “Wagner”. His threat to Shoigu is stronger than in the title, and refers to the time of the Nazis.
Prigogine is known for his direct approach, but in this 77-minute interview, some of the statements are unusually bold even by his standards.
“We made Ukraine a nation”
Prigozhin is unsparing about the war’s failures (called a “special military operation” in Russia). ) “we left” from Kyiv and Kherson and “something is not working out for us”, he continues.
The special military operation was done in the name of “denazification”, and we made Ukraine a nation known all over the world. They are like the Greeks or Romans of the time of prosperity.
Yevgeny Prigozhin
“We, who knows how, militarized Ukraine”
And the other stated goal – “demilitarization” – fails: “If at the beginning of the special operation they had conditionally 500 tanks, now they have 5,000. If then 20 thousand fighters fought skillfully, now 400 thousand. How did we demilitarize it? Now it turns out that we, on the contrary, who knows, we have militarized Ukraine.”
“Today PMC “Wagner” is the best army in the world” and although the Russian army should be placed second, “I think that the Ukrainians today are one of the strongest armies”:
They have a high level of organization, a high level of training, a high level of intelligence, different weapons. They work with any systems – with Soviet, with NATO – equally successfully. With them, everything is about achieving the ultimate goal, as with us in the Great Patriotic War.
Yevgeny Prigozhin
He also commented on the events in the Belgorod region, where the authorities reported the infiltration of “Ukrainian saboteurs” (and Russian formations of the Kiev army claimed responsibility), with the conclusion that Russia is not ready to counter this attack: “Where is the guarantee that won’t they come to Moscow tomorrow?”
“We must work only on the war”
With the current approach, Russia can only get out of control, so we must “introduce martial law, announce new waves of mobilization, transfer everyone we can to munitions production,” he says. No new roads and infrastructure facilities. “We should only work on the war.”
Russia should live in the image of North Korea for a certain number of years, close all borders, stop being stupid, take all its youth from abroad and work hard. Then we will come to some result.
founder of PMC “Wagner”
“We are a complete army”
Prigozhin also sees an interesting hypothesis: if, out of 6,000 people (as he claims) capable of commanding a company, in “Wagner”, his fighters are given 200,000 people, they could “take control of the entire Donbas”. Given PMC Wagner’s experience around the world, he knows “how the Americans, the French, how the useless UN troops fight and how the African tribes fight”.
We are a full-fledged army. Why weren’t we allowed? This was done because of intrigues, out of fear that when a structure grows, it can begin to dictate the conditions and, conditionally, come with tanks to Moscow.
founder of PMC “Wagner”
The Russian military leadership
The conflict with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is an old topic for Prigozhin; he blames him and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov for failures on the battlefield, elsewhere – that progress is slow. Tensions resurfaced with systematic criticism of delays in the supply of ammunition to the Bakhmut front.
“The Loudest Hooligan”: Is Prigogine’s Star Setting?
Prigogine makes it clear (with a blunt statement) that “Wagner” will not be humiliated. “The main problem is with Shoigu and Gerasimov. These are two people who, with their decisions, blocked us for everything, regardless of the president’s statements that there are shells.” The last series of accusations against the two was when it was announced that Bahmut was in the hands of “Wagner” last Saturday.
He proposes that the former Deputy Minister of Defense Mikhail Mizntsev, who commanded the siege of Mariupol and was relieved of his post, and then joined “Wagner”, should take over Shoigu’s post. Sergei Surovikin, who commanded the forces in Ukraine for several months and was replaced by Gerasimov, according to Prigozhin, should head the General Staff. “It would be a normal structure.”
On political loyalty
He explains his attitude to Shoigu – but also to President Vladimir Putin – as follows:
My political belief: I love the motherland, I listen to Putin, Shoigu on soap, we will continue to fight.
founder of PMC “Wagner”
Just two weeks ago he was talking in another interview about “the happy grandfather who thinks everything is fine”. Later, he ruled out that it was about Putin.
“Bartholomew Night”
Shoigu is also targeted because of the “carefree life” of the children of the elite (he gives examples of his relatives), who “smear themselves with creams and show it on Instagram.” The children of “ordinary people”, on the other hand, die at the front, and “a mother cries for her son”. He advised the elite to send their children to war in order to avoid a situation like in 1917 – with a revolution: “When first the soldiers stand up, then their relatives. And it is vain to think that they are hundreds, now there are tens of thousands of relatives of those killed. It must be hundreds of thousands. There is no way out of this.”
And it will all end with something that will suddenly become Bartholomew’s Night. The fatties of the children of the elite will end up with people raising them on pitchforks.
founder of PMC “Wagner”
Two scenarios for the war
In the “optimistic” Prigozhin does not particularly believe: that Europe and America withdraw from the conflict, that Chinese diplomacy triumphs, that “we agree that everything we have already seized is ours, and everything that has not been seized is not ours “. The pessimistic one: the Ukrainians give missiles, prepare troops and the offensive continues, probably somewhat successfully, with the restoration of the borders by 2014, “it can easily happen”, even if it comes to an attack on Crimea and an attempt to blow up the Crimean bridge.
Therefore we must prepare for a heavy war.
founder of PMC “Wagner”
“A nuclear bomb is an axe”
“We set up this fight,” he says. If you quarrel with your neighbor, you may get into a fight, but answering three letters with an ax is a “strange situation”. “A nuclear bomb is an axe. No need to run after a neighbor with an axe.” The proof must be on the battlefield.
In the course of the war, the Russian leadership repeatedly toyed with the possibility of using nuclear weapons, calls were also made by supporters of a hard approach in the war. Russia started sending nuclear weapons to Belarus yesterday.
Tags: Damn Shoigu give martial law Prigozhins dangerous interview war Ukraine
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