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Vladimir Putin has vowed to crush the uprising led by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, calling the armed insurrection ripping through cities in southern Russia a treacherous “stab in the back”.
In the face of Russia’s first coup attempt in three decades, the president said he had given “the necessary orders” to deal with the Wagner paramilitary group with “decisive measures” to take back the city of Rostov.
The gravelly letter, which does not mention Prigozhin by name, suggests that Putin has left no room for compromise with his former aide. What we are dealing with is treason. “Unrestrained personal ambitions and interests betrayed our country and our people,” Putin said.
Putin’s speech on Saturday morning came hours after Prigozhin claimed Rostov had been “besieged”, as armed and masked men with tanks and armored vehicles surrounded government buildings in the southern Russian city.
Prigozhin was filmed entering the army headquarters in Rostov, a command center for southern Russia, before yelling at the deputy defense minister and a senior general about his attempt to overthrow the army leadership. After that his fighters appeared to be heading north towards Moscow, according to the British Ministry of Defense, in convoy through Voronezh.
Prigozhin walks through the military headquarters in Rostov, in southern Russia © Reuters
Prigozhin walks through the military headquarters in Rostov, in southern Russia
The unusual sightings were part of what Prigozhin described as a “march of justice” against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the commander of Russia’s invasion forces. Prigozhin’s Wagner paramilitary group has been sparring with officials for months over the handling of the Ukraine invasion.
We want Gerasimov and Shoigu. “Until they get here, we will stay, surround Rostov and head for Moscow,” Prigozhin told Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov and Deputy Chief of GRU Vladimir Alexeyev. “We are saving Russia.”
In another video posted shortly afterwards, Prigozhin said Wagner was in control of “military facilities in Rostov, including the airport”. It was alleged that Wagner opened fire on Russian forces and shot down three military helicopters.
During his speech on Saturday, Putin likened Prigozhin’s “betrayal” to the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the tsar was overthrown and the Bolsheviks came to power in the face of widespread popular unrest over World War One.
He said, “The conspiracies, disagreements and politicization behind the back of the army and the people ended in a massive collapse, the destruction of the army and the fall of the state, the loss of vast areas, and in the end the tragedy of a civil war.” .
“We will not let that happen again.”
Putin admitted that the situation in Rostov is “complicated” because “the work of the civilian and military leadership is basically surrounded.” But he said security forces had been ordered to “stabilize” the city.
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The president also said that he had ordered “additional measures of an anti-terrorist nature” in Moscow and “several other regions”. The move essentially puts the FSB, Russia’s main security service, in charge of regions and gives them the right to arrest, raid and use force.
Western leaders reacted cautiously to the events. Polish President Andrzej Duda said he had consulted with the Allies and that Warsaw was monitoring events in Russia “on an ongoing basis”.
With Wagner’s months-long conflict with the army at a boiling point, the Russian security services took Prigozhin’s initial statements with unprecedented seriousness. The FSB on Friday accused Prigozhin of organizing an armed uprising, while two senior generals, who rarely speak publicly, urged the Wagner fighters to step down for a “state coup”.
Prigozhin’s gambit seemed to signal the breakdown of a hybrid system in which an array of competing security forces fought on behalf of Russia in Ukraine, often for cross purposes. The chaos follows months of general infighting between Wagner and the military as Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine continues.
Officials in Rostov, home to a top command center overseeing Putin’s war in Ukraine, urged people to stay home and avoid the city centre. Masked men have set up positions outside Russia’s southern military headquarters and several other security services buildings, according to local website 161.ru and several videos posted on local social media.
Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev wrote on social media that public transport routes would change “due to the current situation,” without explaining why.
Outside Rostov, there was no sign of the presence of Prigozhin’s forces, which he says numbered 25,000 men, or of any engagements with the Russian forces.
There was no independent confirmation of any of Prigozhin’s statements or video footage indicating that Wagner mobilized such a force or any indication that it engaged in battles with the army.
But a governor in central Russia said the highway to Moscow had been closed north of Rostov, while officials in the capital said “anti-terror operations” were under way.
