Russian state television has launched an extensive campaign against the owner of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who staged a mutiny in June, writes Reuters.
On the 24th of June, Prigozhin occupied the buildings of the military administration in Rostov, in the southern part of Russia, seized the command center from which Russia conducts the war in Ukraine, and sent a column of fighters to Moscow. It stopped the march halfway when Prigozhin allegedly struck a deal with the Kremlin.
The Wagnerian rebellion was one of the biggest threats to Putin’s regime during his 20-year rule.
Prigozhin’s goal was to overthrow the Defense Minister and the army leadership, whom he accused of incompetence. According to the agreement, Prigozhin had to go to Belarus, in which case the charges would be dropped.
However, on the evening of Wednesday, the 5th of July, the channel Rossiya-1 program 60 Minutes showed material, which shows the raid of Prigozhin’s office and residence by the authorities.
The host of the program, Yevgeny Popov, called Prigozhin a traitor and
the video footage was shown as evidence of Prigozhin’s criminal past and hypocrisy.
The footage showed boxes full of high-denomination ruble bills and bundles of dollars, as well as Prigozhin’s private helicopter, a stockpile of weapons, a collection of wigs, a fully equipped medical manipulation room, and a collection of sledgehammers. Wagner’s group uses sledgehammers to kill group traitors.
The journalist Eduard Petrov, who was invited to the program, stated that there are no plans to close the criminal case and that the investigation is still ongoing.
According to the journalist, cash worth 6.58 million dollars was found in Prigozhin’s possessions.
The television program also revealed that Prigozhin had several passports with different names. Petrov said: “A normal person can’t have so many passports,” said Petrov. “Why did this person have such strange powers like the serious leader of some kind of criminal group? We need to get to the bottom of who was on whose side (in the mutiny). We need to punish and prosecute them.”