Wagner rebellion in Russia

News Agencies :
Mutinous Russian mercenary fighters barrelled towards Moscow after seizing a southern city overnight, with Russia’s military firing on them from the air.
Facing the first serious challenge to his grip on power of his 23-year rule, President Vladimir Putin vowed to crush an armed mutiny he compared to Russia’s Civil War a century ago. A defiant Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner mercenary group, has replied that he and his men had no intention of turning themselves in, reports news agencies.
“The defence ministry is trying to deceive society and the president and tell us a story about how there was crazy aggression from Ukraine and that they were planning to attack us with the whole of NATO”, he added.

The Wagner group chief has said that he is in Rostov-on-Don, in southern Russia, close to the Ukraine border, and that his forces have control of military facilities and the airfield there. He pledged to blockade Rostov and move on to Moscow if Russia’s Defence Minister and top general did not meet with him in the city. The Wagner group further informed that it had also taken control of Russian military facilities in the city of Voronezh, in southwestern Russia.

The conflict between Moscow’s military leadership and Prigozhin, the chief of  private mercenary group Wagner, escalated into an open insurrection on Saturday.
The Wagner chief accused Russia’s military leadership of killing a “huge amount” of his mercenary forces in a strike on a camp and vowed to retaliate. Security forces have been scrambled across western Russia as regional governors urged residents to stay off the roads, and a “counterterrorist operation regime” was declared in Moscow.
Meanwhile Yevgeny Prigozhin has rejected accusations of “treason” by President Vladimir Putin after his troops crossed crossed from Ukraine into the Russian border city of Rostov-on-Don, vowing to fight anyone who tried to stop them.

On Saturday, Prigozhin posted an audio message on the social media app Telegram, claiming his forces had taken control of military facilities in the city, including the airfield.
Videos and pictures posted online, including by Russia’s TASS news agency, showed armed men surrounding administrative buildings in Rostov and tanks deployed in the city centre.
“All of us are ready to die. All 25,000, and then another 25,000,” he said, after earlier accusing the Russian top brass of having launched an attack on their camps in Ukraine, where the mercenaries are fighting on behalf of Moscow.
“We are dying for the Russian people.”
In an emergency televised address on Saturday, Putin said that the “armed mutiny” by Wagner amounted to “treason” and that anyone who had taken up arms against the Russian military would be punished.
He added that he would do everything to protect Russia, and that “decisive action” would be taken to stabilise the situation in Rostov.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) said Prigozhin’s actions were “a call to start an armed civil conflict on the territory of the Russian Federation” and “a stab in the back to Russian servicemen fighting pro-fascist Ukrainian forces”.

In response, Russian authorities said security had been tightened in several regions and the mayor of Moscow announced that “anti-terrorist” measures were being taken in the capital.
“With the aim of preventing possible terrorist acts on the territory of the city of Moscow and the Moscow region, an anti-terror operation regime has been introduced,” the country’s national anti-terrorist committee was quoted by Russian agencies as saying.

Russia’s defence ministry addressed Wagner’s mercenary fighters in a statement, saying that they had been “deceived and dragged into a criminal adventure”.
It urged them to contact its representatives and those of law enforcement services, and promised to guarantee their security.
Meanwhile, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin urged residents to stay at home, minimize travel and car usage amid a counter-terrorism operation initiated in Moscow and its neighboring region.
He declared Monday a non-working day for most, except for certain public servants and industrial workers, emphasizing the readiness of essential city services and urging residents to promptly report any emergencies.

What is Prigozhin’s background?
Prigozhin, 62, was convicted of robbery and assault in 1981 and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Following his release, he opened a restaurant business in Saint Petersburg in the 1990s.
It was in this capacity that he got to know Putin, then the city’s deputy mayor.
He used that connection to develop a catering business and won lucrative Russian government contracts that earned him the nickname, “Putin’s chef”. He later expanded into other areas, including media and an infamous internet “troll factory” that led to his indictment in the US for meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
In January, Prigozhin acknowledged founding, leading and financing the shadowy Wagner company.