Prigozhin possibly promised dismissal of Russia’s Defence Minister and General Staff Chief
Ukrainian intelligence services suggest that Yevgeny Prigozhin, financier of the Wagner Private Military Company, might have been promised the dismissal of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and several other military officials, sources told Ukrainska Pravda.
Source: Sources of Ukrainska Pravda in the Ukrainian special services
Details: Sources note that in exchange for turning the convoys of Wagner Group’s forces away from Moscow, Prigozhin could have been promised the dismissal of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov and other minor Russian officials with whom the owner of the Wagner PMC is in conflict.
The sources also cast doubt on whether the Wagnerites will actually move to Belarus.
Previously: On the evening of Saturday, 24 June, the press service of the self-proclaimed President of Belarus announced that Aleksandr Lukashenko held talks with Yevgeny Prigozhin, and he accepted the proposal to stop the movement of the Wagnerites on the territory of Russia.
Afterwards, Prigozhin announced that his mercenaries were turning their convoys around and going in the opposite direction to the field camps.
Later, the Kremlin announced that the criminal case against Prigozhin would be closed and he would "go to Belarus".
Background:
- On the evening of 23 June, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that the regular Russian army had launched a missile strike on the Wagner mercenaries’ rear camps. He, therefore, deployed 25,000 of his mercenaries "to restore justice".
- On the morning of 24 June, Prigozhin claimed that his forces had taken control of military facilities in Rostov-on-Don, including the air base, and were heading "to Moscow" and that his soldiers had shot down three Russian helicopters. Wagner mercenaries also seized military facilities in the Russian city of Voronezh.
- In an emergency address on 24 June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was "fighting for survival" and that attempts were being made to "organise a rebellion" in the country.
- A criminal case was initiated against Prigozhin for 'organising an armed rebellion'; Article 279 of the Russian Criminal Code provides a sentence of 12 to 20 years imprisonment.
- On the afternoon of 24 June, Russian media reported that the Office of the President of the Russian Federation anticipated that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group fighters were likely to reach Moscow’s outskirts in the next few hours, with fighting expected near Russia’s capital. Ukrainian intelligence had information that Putin had urgently left Moscow for his residence in Valdai. The convoy of the Wagner Group’s forces was spotted 400 kilometres from Moscow.
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