Russia President, Vladimir Putin, is expected to make a televised address to the citizens today, June 24, amid an armed protest by the Wagner group allegedly to overthrow the country’s military command.
According to Times of India, Putin is being kept abreast by all relevant state security agencies on the measures being taken to thwart an attempted armed mutiny.
On Friday, the leader of the Wagner private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had announced that he had entered Russia with his troops to overthrow the country’s military command. He also said he and his 25,000 soldiers were willing to sacrifice their lives.
The publication also reported that Prigozhin accused the Russian military leaders of attacking his forces.
The 62-year-old was quoted in a voice message saying, “We are all prepared to give our lives. All of us, 25,000, and then another 25,000.
“We are laying down our lives for the Russian people.”
Immediately, the Russian authorities reacted by increasing security in several regions and the Moscow mayor said that “anti-terrorism” actions were being taken in the city.
The FSB security service blamed Prigozhin for trying to start a “civil conflict” and called on Wagner fighters to capture him.
Prigozhin has said he was inside the army Head Quarter in southern Russia’s Rostov-on-Don and that his fighters control the city’s military sites, including an aerodrome, after vowing to bring down Moscow’s top brass.
In an online video on Telegram, the Wagner chief said, “We are inside the (army) headquarters, it is 7:30 am (0430 GMT).
“Military sites in Rostov, including an aerodrome, are under control,” he said.
Russia’s security services had responded to Prigozhin’s declaration of an armed rebellion by calling for his arrest, as this has caused speculations of a planned coup against the Russian military.
Authorities tightened security in the capital, including around government buildings, and put riot police on alert, Tass said.
In Moscow, critical facilities were “under reinforced protection”, the TASS state-run news agency reported, citing a law enforcement source. Early Saturday, Moscow’s mayor said city authorities were conducting unspecified “anti-terrorist actions.”
Regulators also blocked access to Google’s news aggregator on major platforms in Russia, according to NetBlocks, an Internet-monitoring group.
The dramatic turn of events, with many details unclear, looked like the biggest domestic crisis Putin has faced since he ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine – something he called a “special military operation” – in February 2022.
President Vladimir Putin was getting round-the-clock updates from security officials on their efforts to counter “the attempt at an armed mutiny” by Yevgeny Prigozhin, Tass reported early Saturday morning in Moscow, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Putin had long appeared to tolerate the mercenary’s outbursts, relying on his troops to fight in key parts of the front. But his high profile rankled with the military brass, which regularly sought to undermine and sideline him.
Prigozhin, whose Wagner militia spearheaded the capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut last month, has for months been openly accusing defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, of rank incompetence and of denying Wagner ammunition and support in its battles in Ukraine.
As their feud appeared to come to a head, the ministry issued a statement saying Prigozhin’s accusations were “not true and are an informational provocation”.
Prigozhin said his actions were not a military coup. But in a frenzied series of audio messages, in which the sound of his voice sometimes varied and could not be independently verified, he appeared to suggest that 25,000 fighters were en route to oust the leaders of the defence establishment in Moscow.
Though he threatened to destroy “anyone who will try to resist,” Prigozhin said “this is not a military coup. This is a march of justice.”
On Friday, Prigozhin posted a video on Telegram accusing the defense ministry of “deceiving” Russians and Putin about the war as he challenged Kremlin justifications for the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The mercenary leader has increasingly put himself at odds with the Kremlin narrative about the war, while warning Russians that full mobilization and martial law are necessary to avoid defeat in Ukraine.
In an interview with a local journalist last month, he heaped praise on the performance of Ukraine’s military and scorned the “denazification and demilitarization” goals that Putin and top Kremlin officials used as justification for the war. “How did we demilitarize it? We actually militarized it,” he said. “It’s now one of the strongest armies.”
He also accused Russia’s top defense officials of using the war to enrich themselves and leaving the country unprotected following a border incursion by attackers who crossed from Ukraine.