Moscow. The forces of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner began to leave their positions in Russia as ordered by their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who turned back after directly defying the authority of President Vladimir Putin, FP reports. After a day of spectacular armed rebellion, Prigozhin is to leave for Belarus, and the charges against him will be withdrawn, the Kremlin announced. FP recalls that Wagner’s troops were heading for the capital on Saturday, after occupying during the morning the headquarters of the Russian army in Rostov (southwest), the sensitive center of operations in Ukraine. Wagner claimed that the Russian strikes caused a very large number of casualties in his ranks and accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of being responsible for that. According to the Washington Post and New York Times, the American intelligence services warned the White House about the imminence of a Wagner revolt in Russia a day before it broke out. Faced with the biggest challenge since he came to power in late 1999, President Putin has tried to keep his hand strong in the face of this unprecedented rebellion, denouncing a ‘treason’ and evoking the specter of a ‘civil war’.
© Rador 2024
