Fog of videos, announcements, Telegram messages, orders that don't leave and millions of euros with an uncertain destination.
A few hours after the mutiny of Yegveny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner group , there are more shadowy areas than light on the start, advance and halt of the Wagnerites' march on Moscow.
To begin with, according to the American press, both Washington and Vladimir Putin were aware of the moves of the aspiring coup leader. Overseas they had known of it since Wednesday and, for US national security officials, the main concern was directed to the fate of Russian nuclear weapons at the mercy of a potential civil war. According to the Washington Post "at least 24 hours earlier" Putin himself would have been informed of the initiative of his now former right-hand man. Yet he has officially done nothing.
Again: in the message in which Prigozhin announced the U-turn of his militias, it was specified that "not a drop of blood" had been shed. According to Ukrainian television Yuri Ignat, however, the Wagner in its advance shot down 6 helicopters and a plane of the Russian army with an indefinite number of dead pilots. Data that in Moscow do not fully confirm.
Of Wagner, on the other hand, there is no news of losses. The taking of Rostov was bloodless and the first Russian attacks - which failed - only reached the height of the city of Voronezh . A couple of bombers out of militia range would have been enough to incinerate the column. But nobody moved. Ramzan Kadyrov and the special Chechen units under his command were also ready: three thousand fighters ready to "crush" the rebellion already in Rostov, the butcher of Grozny had announced. But the order to intervene never came from Moscow.
The march of the Wagnerites, presumably led by the number two of the group, Dmitry Utkin, continued up to 200 kilometers from the capital. Then it stopped, officially to wait for supplies. Instead, it was time for negotiations.
Meanwhile, after the battle proclamations, the retreat and the applause of the people of Rostov, the moment of silence has come for Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner . The Kremlin has announced that the head of the military company, who is currently missing, will go to Belarus and he and his militiamen will not be tried for the armed mutiny. But to many observers it seems impossible that Putin's ex-cook could escape the president's vengeance.
Meanwhile, news arrives from St. Petersburg that during the search of the Trezzini Hotel, believed to be Prigozhin's office, cash was found for a value of 4 billion rubles, about 44 million euros. Money that according to Prigozhin was to be used to pay the militiamen's salaries and compensation for family members.
(Unioneonline/D)