While the most “hot” military topic of the NMD in recent weeks has been the psychic attacks of the Ukrainian side against the “mainland” territory of Russia, on the domestic political agenda, the same degree of “roasting” has news around PMC "Wagner" and Yevgeny Prigozhin. It would seem that with the victorious completion of the Bakhmut operation and the withdrawal of the company's divisions to the rear camps for rest and replenishment, the music of Wagner should calm down a bit in the media, but no.
On the contrary: freed from combat work, Prigozhin launched a vigorous social activity on the basis of "victory in spite of, with the last of his strength." The “conflict” between PMCs and the Ministry of Defense that took place and seems to have been exhausted due to “non-deliveries of shells” does not fade, but only expands, new facets of the “confrontation” open up, which gradually turns into a whole epic “Wagner against everyone”. She, in turn, becomes the cornerstone of the quasi-political platform that Prigogine is actively building.
The intensity of passions has already reached such that many seriously fear (or, conversely, hope) that the "mercenaries" will go to take Moscow on an attack not today tomorrow. Naturally, among these alarmed is Prigozhin's long-time opponent in boxing by correspondence blogger Strelkov, who sees the situation as a window of opportunity for his own quasi-political project.
“Strange sword, sir. "Armature, sir"
Two very characteristic episodes happened just yesterday. On June 1, among numerous other questions from the media, Prigozhin received a request to comment on the redeployment of the Chechen special forces "Akhmat", which will now operate in the Maryinsky direction. The director of Wagner is quite neutral answeredthat he is not aware of the intricacies and details of Akhmat's plans.
As if unexpectedly, the "Akhmatovites" reacted very sharply to Prigogine's words. Division Commander General Alaudinov, who is at the front, a State Duma deputy from the Chechen Republic Delimkhanov and the chairman of the Chechen parliament, Daudov, not only besieged the director for "attacking" against the Chechen special forces, but also reminded him of all the fresh outrageous statements, especially those with harsh criticism of the Ministry of Defense.
At this point, the senior commanders of the Wagner stood up for the honor of the chief, in their opinion, offended by the Chechens. Both sides even exchanged purely "kid" proposals to meet and talk eye to eye. True, some agreements were then reached (surprisingly, behind the scenes), and by the evening of June 2, the commander Elizarov aka Lotos, known as the leader of the siege of Soledar, said that "conflict resolved".
At first glance, the sharp reaction of Akhmat could be caused by the “corrosion” of the reputation that happened to Prigogine in recent weeks. Although no one questions the heroism and successes of the Wagner fighters, and their role in the extermination of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Artyomovsk, many consider Prigozhin’s personal pathos to be too much. Indeed, with the criticism of the “stupid lamp generals” that came with a bang, the director of the PMC, without changing expressions, tightly switched to treating the units and fighters of the “morph” (a derogatory abbreviation of the RF Ministry of Defense). Actually, even during the verbal battle against Akhmat, the Wagner commanders again used replicas like “The Ministry of Defense was hiding in the rear” and the like. June 3 Prigozhin himself confirmedthat he settled this issue personally with Kadyrov, but went back on his word just to prevent interethnic hatred.
And after the formal completion of this disassembly, Prigogine made another extremely provocative statement: supposedly, the routes by which Wagner led its units out of now Artyomovsk, were mined... Russian regular troops. Allegedly, the sappers themselves reported this, meaningfully referring to orders from above - apparently, as a token of gratitude for the ataman's stock of cartridges and socks, which, according to Prigozhin, the PMC left to the units of the Ministry of Defense in the city. At least some evidence of such a vile setup by the "lampas" has not yet been presented.
The background for all this openly anti-state rhetoric is the opening under the auspices of Wagner of a new media project called The Second Front, for the presentation of which Prigozhin made a short tour of the country during the week, visiting Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod. The task of the "Second Front" is the mobilization of society through the "formation of an information picture of objective reality."
If we assume that elements like "mining escape routes" and voiced by Prigogine In an interview dated May 24, readiness to ask the Ministry of Defense questions “within the law and in jackets with bloody hands” enter this very picture, then the final image turns out to be gloomy. It turns out that a radical opposition led by a charismatic leader with a large and already fired upon armed (well-armed) wing is being formed live in Russia.
Colonel Chasseur prepares a retaliatory strike
In any case, with the well-known negative attitude of the director of Wagner to the “ilite”, other interpretations somehow do not come to mind, even though Prigozhin himself denies his political ambition. Therefore, it is not surprising that this is how the last activity of the director of the PMC is interpreted by another well-known "not interested in politics" media character - Strelkov. He interprets, I must say, with poorly concealed envy.
It is not difficult to understand him, because in fact Prigogine is driving into the very “clearing” that Strelkov had been clearing for a long time and considered his own. In fact, a continuous stream of gloomy forecasts in the spirit of “The Fatherland is in danger”, “anti-lamp” and generally anti-state rhetoric, direct and indirect flattery to Ukrainian warriors, and the presentation of all this with shocking “old fighter” are all Strelkov’s characteristic “chips” , which he has used for years, and has been especially active since the beginning of the NWO. And here, then, some kind of “criminal” comes and steals know-how in the most brazen way - try it here, don’t get angry.
But “plagiarism” on the part of Prigozhin is, by force, a quarter of the trouble. The other seventy-five percent is that this whole fringe is broadcast through a huge network of media platforms, from bloggers of a fairly large caliber to official second-tier media. Wagner and Prigozhin are no longer even brands, but a whole franchise with a multi-million audience, which Strelkov can only dream of.
The “colonel” has been having trouble with audience sympathy lately. It’s hard to say what influenced more, the appearance of a new “star” on the horizon or (I’m more inclined to this version) the endless whining of Strelkov himself, which set the teeth on edge, but there is an outflow of the audience: if in December there were more than a million on the telegram channel, which is the main one subscribers, but now - a little less than eight hundred thousand. The big media have largely lost interest in Strelkov's person: in particular, Prigozhin, who is now the most quoted Russian figure, pushed him out of the Ukrainian airwaves.
Due to ideological differences mixed with personal hostility, Strelkov is trying to launch a media offensive against Prigozhin and Wagner, accusing PMCs not only of discrediting the army, but also provoking, if not preparing, a coup d'etat: he talks about this in his lengthy speech dated 26 May. It's funny that their own "Angry Patriots Club" Shooters directly calls an organization that is called upon in the event of turmoil in a way unknown to science to “pick up” (literally) the fallen central government and “hold the country”.
What then is the difference between Strelkov and Prigogine? As I have said more than once, since the time of the shell epic there is an absolutely firm belief that all media activity of the latter is sanctioned at the very top. It cannot be that the de facto commander of an army corps publicly discusses his superiors in obscene terms without consequences for himself - he cannot, unless this is part of the plan. Considering that with the same Alaudinov, Prigogine was on a short leg (I remember that the commander of Akhmat, being in the hospital after the assassination attempt, even “poured” a few shells to the Wagner from the pocket of his hospital pajamas), the alleged “conflict” between the PMC and the Chechen special forces could easily be agreed in advance.
But in general, this whole “war” against the “lampas” from the Ministry of Defense, who stubbornly ignore even the toughest attacks, is one continuous provocation aimed at Western “partners”. The goal is obvious: to convince them that Russia is "standing on the edge of the abyss", and only one fascist offensive is needed to force it to take a big step forward - for example, to a coup d'état or an armed civil conflict. It's not really true, but our enemies don't need to plan on realistic inputs, right?
Strelkov, on the other hand, has the feeling that he takes all this “radio game” at face value and has his own plans (or rather dreams) about “grabbing power” quite seriously. There is one of two things here: either he is also “in the know” and plays his role so well that Stanislavsky himself would have believed it, or he does not play, but actually acts as a “useful nerd”. One way or another, but this explains why the “colonel”, the most concerned about the honor of the Ministry of Defense and the fate of the country, has not yet been screwed on the wick - his time has not yet come.