Russian President Vladimir Putin went on TV and denounced a “rebellion” by the Wagner Mercenary Army, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, calling it “a stab in the back,” and “treason.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is unclear how strong Putin’s control over the Russian Army is to put down Prigozhin’s challenge. One thing is for sure – a major power struggle is under way. He calls his action a patriotic “march for justice” – “not a coup.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday vowed harsh punishment for the organizers of an armed rebellion spearheaded by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led his troops out of Ukraine and into a key southern city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Putin denounced the uprising as \u201ca stab in the back\u201d in an address to the nation. It was the biggest threat to his leadership in over two decades in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prigozhin\u2019s private army appeared to control the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a city 660 miles (over 1,000 kilometers) south of Moscow that runs Russian operations in Ukraine, Britain\u2019s Ministry of Defense said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wagner troops and equipment also rolled into Russia\u2019s Lipetsk province, about 360 kilometers (225 miles) south of Moscow, where authorities \u201care taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety of the population,\u201d said regional Gov. Igor Artamonov, via Telegram. He did not elaborate,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the fast-moving events unfolded in Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow is suffering \u201cfull-scale weakness\u201d and that Kyiv was protecting Europe from \u201cthe spread of Russian evil and chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his speech, Putin called the actions by Prigozhin, whom he did not mention by name, a \u201cbetrayal\u201d and \u201ctreason.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll those who prepared the rebellion will suffer inevitable punishment,\u201d Putin said. \u201cThe armed forces and other government agencies have received the necessary orders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prigozhin said his fighters would not surrender, as \u201cwe do not want the country to live on in corruption, deceit and bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRegarding the betrayal of the motherland, the president was deeply mistaken. We are patriots of our homeland,\u201d he said in an audio message on his Telegram channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prigozhin\u2019s\u00a0private army<\/a>, known as Wagner, has been fighting alongside regular Russian troops in Ukraine. His goals weren\u2019t immediately clear, but the rebellion marks an escalation in his struggle with Russian military leaders, whom he accused of botching the war in Ukraine and hobbling his forces in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is not a military coup, but a march of justice,\u201d Prigozhin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prigozhin<\/a>\u00a0posted video of himself at the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don and claimed his forces had taken control of the airfield and other military facilities in the city. Other videos on social media showed military vehicles, including tanks, on the streets. . . . .<\/p>\nAP<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russian President Vladimir Putin went on TV and denounced a “rebellion” by the Wagner Mercenary Army, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, calling it “a stab in the back,” and “treason.” It is unclear how strong Putin’s control over the Russian Army is to put down Prigozhin’s challenge. One thing is for sure – a major power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[102,166,101,168,167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-russia","category-russian-rebellion","category-vladimir-putin","category-wagner-army","category-yevgeny-prigozhin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freelyinformed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freelyinformed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freelyinformed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freelyinformed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freelyinformed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freelyinformed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":646,"href":"https:\/\/freelyinformed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions\/646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freelyinformed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freelyinformed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freelyinformed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}