A staging. So the former deputy of the Russian Duma Ilya Ponomarevbusinessman who has been living in since 2016 exile in Ukraine and who is one of the founders of Legion for the Freedom of Russiadescribes the mutiny of the Wagner groupfollowed by the march towards Mosca, interrupted 200 km from the capital after an agreement – expected by analysts in the previous hours – despite the fact that until then it had not met any resistance. According to Ponomarev, Yevgheny Prigozhin e Vladimir Putin they had “obviously a agreement from the beginning on what would have happened and of which no one else was aware”, he explains, underlining that the head of Wagner “is a very trusted man of Putin”. As is known, the two have known each other for a long time and have always had a relationship of great trust between them.
The former deputy, the only one to have voted against theannexation of Crimea, highlights the reasons that, in his opinion, prompted Putin and Prigozhin to act in this way. On the one hand, the goal of the Russian president was “to scare both theRussian elite than the international one”, he tells theberaking latest news and for this “he needed to send a message that he is not the worst alternative” and that there is “a OrcPrigozhin, that no one in the international community would like to see with a nuclear button in hand”.
In his opinion, in any case, what happened between Friday and Saturday evening will have positive consequences for Ukraine: “They will certainly help us in the sense that the morale in Russian troops it is not already high and will be even lower after all these events. Also there know problems in them chain of command. And all of this is definitely positive,” she declares. But Putin, he continues, has achieved his goal: “The Russians consider him the winner and approval of him will increase after all that has happened, but in real terms – Ponomarev warns – obviously the whole her basic weakness. The time has come for Moscow to be liberated and when our Legion for the Freedom of Russia grows to the necessary level it will surely make this real unrealized plan in Prigozhin”.
According to Ponomarev, Putin wanted to demonstrate that the possibility of his replacement was “real” and that the replacement was worse than him. “And sadly I think he achieved that since everyone believed this show.” Prigozhin, claims the Russian billionaire, for his part needed a way to leave Ukraine “with dignity”. “He has been fighting for a long time and is tired. He has lost many of his men, but most of all he has financial opportunities pharaonic in Africa, big military contracts he can pursue, but couldn’t just walk away. He needed an excuse, ”Ponomarev points out, according to which the Belaruswhere Prigozhin is expected as announced on Saturday evening by the Kremlin, is alone “a place of transit” and “he won’t stay there long and from there he will move to Africa”.
From “tragicomedy” which “explains eloquently to the leaders of other countries why Ukraine does not see how it is possible to negotiate today with Putin’s Russia”, also speaks the main adviser to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Mikhailo Podolyak. Who continues: “A simple question. With whom can we talk about anything if the main interlocutor has the candies that it slips out of his hands like sand through his fingers and everyone is cleaning their shoes with his strategic command?”. The days “for this gang” are “numbered and there is no boss in the house”, concludes Podolyak speaking of a situation within Russia which is “uncontrollable” and in which “the precarious structure it stands by inertia, on a thread of hope… while strong winds are expected to arrive”.