For years, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary chief who performed a quick insurrection towards the Russian army, had been a loyal supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
In current months, he continued to keep away from straight criticizing Mr. Putin, at the same time as he more and more used social media to lambaste Russia’s army, accusing its leaders of treason and blaming them for failing to offer his forces with sufficient sources.
However over the past two days, he assailed the rationale for Mr. Putin’s so-called particular army operation in Ukraine, despatched his forces to grab the southern Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don, a army hub, and started to maneuver Wagner convoys towards Moscow. Mr. Putin mobilized Russian troops to quell what he known as an armed insurrection, and the Belarusian president, a Putin ally, negotiated a halt to the Wagner advance.
Right here’s a take a look at Mr. Prigozhin’s historical past and a number of the claims he has made:
December 2016
The USA imposed sanctions towards 15 Russian entities, together with Mr. Prigozhin, for his or her dealings in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and in Ukraine, the place Russian-backed separatists seized territory the identical 12 months. The Treasury Division focused businesspeople who have been associates of Mr. Putin or have been concerned in actions that aided in Russia’s destabilization of Ukraine.
February 2018
Mr. Prigozhin was one among 13 Russians indicted by a federal grand jury in america for interfering within the 2016 presidential election by way of the Web Analysis Company, a troll manufacturing unit that unfold falsehoods and waged info warfare in assist of the marketing campaign of Donald J. Trump.
September 2022
Mr. Prigozhin publicly acknowledged for the primary time that he was the founding father of the Wagner mercenary group, whose fighters have been deployed alongside Russian troops in Ukraine. Beforehand, Wagner fighters had operated in assist of the Kremlin’s army campaigns in Africa and the Center East, sometimes battling towards U.S. forces.
October 2022
Mr. Prigozhin was one among two highly effective supporters of Mr. Putin to publicly activate Russia’s army management after it ordered a retreat from Lyman, a key metropolis in jap Ukraine, emphasizing that the retreat was a significant embarrassment for the Kremlin.
November 2022
Only a day earlier than the U.S. midterms, Mr. Prigozhin sardonically boasted that Russia was interfering within the election.
“Gents, we now have interfered, we do intrude and we’ll intrude,” Mr. Prigozhin mentioned in an announcement posted by his catering firm. “We are going to do it rigorously, exactly, surgically as we’re able to doing it. Throughout our focused operations, we’ll take away each kidneys and liver directly.”
On the time, Wagner troops have been advancing on the jap Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut, which had been underneath Russian assault for months.
February 2023
Mr. Prigozhin accused two Russian army leaders of treason in a collection of hostile audio messages. He claimed that the Russian protection minister, Sergei Ok. Shoigu, and its most senior basic, Valery V. Gerasimov, have been withholding ammunition and provides from his fighters to attempt to destroy Wagner.
Earlier within the month, Mr. Prigozhin had mentioned that Wagner would not recruit fighters from Russian prisons, a follow that had raised criticism from human rights teams however helped gasoline Moscow’s advances in jap Ukraine.
Might 2023
Mr. Prigozhin issued a collection of inflammatory statements. He as soon as once more accused Russia’s army paperwork of ravenous Wagner forces of needed ammunition and threatened to withdraw them from Bakhmut. Days later, he appeared to backtrack on that risk after saying he had been promised extra arms.
In late Might, Wagner forces mentioned that they had captured Bakhmut, a declare it had made beforehand as properly. Ukrainian officers rapidly denied the declare, however days later acknowledged the lack of the town. Russian state media saved Mr. Prigozhin’s title out of its protection of these occasions.
Earlier within the month, Mr. Prigozhin dismissed a report from The Washington Put up saying that leaked intelligence confirmed he had supplied to share Russian Military positions with Ukraine.
June 2023
Tensions between Mr. Prigozhin and Russia’s army rose greater. Mr. Prigozhin mentioned Wagner wouldn’t adjust to an order that might require it to signal a proper contract with Russia’s protection ministry by July.
The feud quickly escalated on Friday of final week, when Mr. Prigozhin launched a 30-minute video by which he described his nation’s invasion of Ukraine as a “racket” perpetrated by a corrupt elite chasing cash and glory with out concern for Russian lives. He additionally challenged the Kremlin’s declare that Kyiv had been on the verge of attacking Russian-backed separatist territory in Ukraine’s east when Russia invaded.
“The conflict wasn’t wanted to return Russian residents to our bosom, nor to demilitarize or denazify Ukraine,” Mr. Prigozhin mentioned, referring to Mr. Putin’s preliminary justifications for the conflict. “The conflict was wanted so {that a} bunch of animals might merely exult in glory.”
Mr. Prigozhin additionally accused Mr. Shoigu, the Russian minister of protection, of orchestrating a lethal assault with missiles and helicopters on camps to the rear of the Russian traces in Ukraine, the place his troopers have been bivouacked.
The Russian protection ministry denied the allegations, saying in an announcement that the messages Mr. Prigozhin had posted about supposed strikes on Wagner camps “don’t correspond to actuality.” His account of the assaults stays unconfirmed.
Mr. Putin mobilized Russian troops on Saturday to defend Moscow from what he known as an armed insurrection by Mr. Prigozhin, whose forces had claimed management of Rostov-on-Don and have been seen transferring north alongside a freeway towards the Russian capital. Then, in a shock flip of occasions, the Belarusian president, Alexsandr G. Lukashenko, mentioned he had secured Mr. Prigozhin’s settlement to halt his forces’ advance. Mr. Prigozhin confirmed that he was turning his forces round.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, mentioned that Mr. Prigozhin would flee to Belarus, and that Russia’s army operations in Ukraine would proceed unchanged.
