Kremlin tries to negotiate with Prigozhin, but he refuses – Russian media

The administration of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has attempted to reach an agreement with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner PMC, but he refused to accept the Kremlin's terms.

Source: Russian Telegram channels; Vazhnye Istorii (Important Stories), a Russian website focused on investigative journalism

Quote: "The Kremlin tried to negotiate with Prigozhin yesterday. He received a call from the President’s Administration (not from Putin) and was offered to backtrack and explain all his messages as hacking and voice faking."

Details: A source close to the Putin administration informed the Russian media of this incident.

The source said that after Prigozhin refused to accept the administration's conditions, Putin ordered to initiate a criminal case against him and deal with him harshly.

After Prigozhin's first messages, several Russian pro-government telegram channels began to report that all of the Wagnerite leader's allegations were "fake" and resulted from hacking.

Background:

Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that the regular Russian army had launched a missile strike on the Wagnerites’ rear camps. Prigozhin claimed that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Rostov, where he personally conducted an operation to wipe out the mercenaries.

Prigozhin's 25,000 mercenaries are allegedly going to "restore justice". At the same time, he asked people not to call this a "military coup". Prigozhin added that Shoigu had fled Rostov like a coward and "this creature will be stopped". The Russian Defence Ministry called this information a provocation.

Photos and videos of armoured vehicles on the streets of the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don are being posted on Russian social media following Prigozhin’s statement about a de facto declaration of war against the Russian army. Checkpoints have been set up at entrances to Moscow.

In his address to fellow citizens, Putin said that Russia was "fighting for survival" and that there were attempts to "organise a rebellion" in the country.

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