Russian state television on Sunday accused Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin of going off the rails after receiving billions in public money, illustrating the new narrative of power over the paramilitary group since its abortive mutiny.
“Prigojine lost his mind over large sums of money,” said Dmitri Kissiliov, one of the main voices of the Kremlin media apparatus, during his weekly program.
“The feeling of believing that everything was allowed had appeared a long time ago, from the operations [de Wagner] in Syria and Africa,” he continues. According to him, this feeling was “reinforced” after the capture, this year, of the cities of Soledar and Bakhmout in Ukraine by the mercenaries of Prigozhin.
“He believed he could oppose the Russian Ministry of Defense, the state and the president in person at the same time,” said Dmitri Kissiliov.
To illustrate this supposed delusion of grandeur of Mr. Prigozhin, the presenter assured, without providing evidence, that the military company Wagner had received 858 billion rubles (8.8 billion euros) of public money.
According to Mr. Kissiliov, “one of the major factors” in the Wagner group’s mutiny was the Russian Ministry of Defense’s refusal to extend the juicy contracts signed with Yevgeny Prigojine’s Concord catering group.
Wagner’s rebellion, carried out at the end of last week, shook Russian power, in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine.
For several hours, Wagner’s fighters occupied a Russian army headquarters in Rostov (southwest) and rushed several hundred kilometers towards Moscow.
The mutiny ended on Saturday evening with an agreement providing for the departure to Belarus of Mr. Prigozhin.
No sanctions have been announced against the mutineers, but the future of Mr. Prigojine’s businesses seems uncertain. News sites close to his group were blocked this week in Russia.
On Saturday, the group’s headquarters in Saint Petersburg, the Wagner Center, announced on Telegram that it was moving, while assuring that it would continue to operate under a “new format”.
THE wall street journal advanced on Sunday that agents of the Federal Security Service had raided the headquarters of Wagner in Saint Petersburg in order to seek evidence against Mr. Prigojine.
Yevgeny Prigojine assured that his uprising was not intended to overthrow power, but to save Wagner from being dismantled by the Russian general staff, which he accuses of incompetence in the conflict in Ukraine.
Since last Monday, Mr. Prigozhin has not made a public statement.
On Sunday, Dmitry Kissiliov challenged the idea that Wagner’s fighters were the most effective of the Russian forces, saying it took them “225 days” to take Bakhmout, compared to “70 days” for the regular army to take Mariupol. .