By Pyotr
Kozlov,MOSCOW Russia
On the evening of June 23, Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was preparing to give the order for his men to march to Moscow and demand the removal of Russia’s military leadership after months of rising tensions.
Meanwhile, a seemingly
unremarkable event was unfolding inside the State Duma’s imposing Stalinist
headquarters a few hundred meters from the Kremlin — one that nearly became an
unprecedented political scandal.
At around 5 p.m., a few dozen
people gathered for a roundtable in
the State Duma’s Minor Hall.
Sergei Mironov, the head of
the A Just Russia – Patriots – For Truth party and a longtime ally of President
Vladimir Putin, opened the session with a pre-recorded video message that was
followed by remarks from several other MPs and functionaries.
In their speeches, the MPs
criticized Moscow’s insufficient support for mobilized and volunteer soldiers
fighting in Ukraine, suggesting introducing government bonds and a state
monopoly on alcohol to boost the military’s funding.
Prigozhin had secretly planned
to attend this session to deliver a harsh criticism of Russia’s military top
brass from the floor of the State Duma in a last-ditch attempt to win back
Putin’s approval — but his plans were canceled at the last minute, The Moscow
Times has learned.
These plans were disclosed on
condition of anonymity by a person familiar with Prigozhin and his plans and a
source in the State Duma. A person close to the leadership of the A Just Russia
party confirmed this information.
“He was going to voice the
whole array of problems with the SVO [special military operation’], with the
Defense Ministry, the real number of casualties among our fighters, etc. The
whole f****d up thing, in fact,” the person told The Moscow Times. “His assistants
were preparing his visit.”
With the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Wagner’s increased role on the frontline, Prigozhin's influence grew rapidly and peaked dramatically. Soon, he had become one of Russia's most visible public figures.
By June 2023, his popularity
with Russians had reached a record level. He appeared fifth — after Putin, the
foreign minister, defense minister, and prime minister — on the ranking of
figures most trusted by the Russian public, according to
the Romir polling agency.
However, his growing influence
and his aggressive manner of doing business provoked and exacerbated conflicts
with the Russian army as
well as with members of Russia’s elite.
These included Yury Kovalchuk,
Putin's childhood friend and major shareholder of Rossiya Bank; the Federal
Security Service (FSB); and Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin’s first deputy chief of
staff and domestic policy supervisor, the independent IStories news outlet reported in
late 2022.
Kremlin-controlled media
outlets were ordered from the beginning of 2023 to limit how often they
mentioned Prigozhin, especially as his statements on
Wagner’s ammunition shortages
became more aggressive, the independent Vyorstka news outlet reported in late
February.
By the late spring and early
summer of 2023, the Wagner leader suddenly found himself a pariah.
As his conflict with Defense
Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov came to a head,
the informal influence that had always been one of his advantages was drying
up. He was deprived of the ability to personally discuss and resolve
issues with the Kremlin and the government, and lost his access to Putin.
"Even those offices where
he used to be able to literally kick open the door were off-limits to
him," a government source told The Moscow Times.
To get the president’s
attention and win his support, he would have to take extraordinary measures.
“The Duma, though it does not
make such decisions, seemed to him in some ways an opportunity to jump into the
last carriage of a departing train,” a source close to the United Russia party
leadership told The Moscow Times.
Prigozhin visited the State
Duma in the spring to seek permission to speak from the lectern. However, State
Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin turned down his request.
"Volodin rejected this,
as there was a ban from the Kremlin on any activity by ‘Putin's chef’," a
source in the Duma told The Moscow Times.
After this, the decision was
made to organize Prigozhin’s presentation with the help of his allies from the
A Just Russia – Patriots – For Truth party.
After the full-scale invasion
of Ukraine, the party was widely perceived as sympathetic toward Prigozhin and
Wagner. The party attempted to legalize Wagner, while
Mironov himself boasted of
his friendship with Prigozhin and posed with
a sledgehammer — a symbol of
Wagner’s cruelty.
The party’s other leader,
pro-Kremlin writer and nationalist Zakhar Prilepin, posted a selfie with Prigozhin from a
hospital, saying on his Telegram channel that they discussed the course of the invasion.
"[It was] all prepared in
secret from the Duma leadership and party leadership," a source in the
party said.
The late Wagner leader was
supposed to enter the Duma by invitation from a party deputy.
His inner circle was seriously
considering the possibility that he would be accompanied by Gen. Sergei
Surovikin, the former head of Russia’s invasion force, to make his address more
convincing, a source familiar with the plans told The Moscow Times, adding that
the two had been very close.
“Prigozhin needed a
high-status, official platform with the Russian coat of arms. According to his
plan, in that event, his uncensored statements would definitely be brought to
and put right on Putin's desk,” a person close to the State Duma leadership told
The Moscow Times.
The footage of his speech at
the party roundtable with a recognizable entourage from the Russian parliament
would have played to his advantage. And the media coverage of his harsh
statements in the Duma would have forced Putin’s aides to inform him of the
incident.
On June 22, the day before the
planned speech, The Moscow Times' sources were told that Prigozhin's
participation in the roundtable meeting had been canceled without
explanation.
"Prigozhin's press
reporters should have been at the roundtable. The package was not supposed to
be published the same day, but later. There was to be a major scandal
afterward," a source in the party said.
When asked if he knew of
Prigozhin’s plans, A Just Russia deputy Oleg Nilov, one of the roundtable’s
speakers, responded with a link to a video of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
telling reporters: “What do you want, moron?”
Other participants of the
roundtable did not respond.
The Moscow Times sent requests
for comment to the State Duma press office, as well as to those of the A Just
Russia – Patriots – For Truth party, Mironov and Prilepin. None have responded.
Within hours of the
roundtable, Prigozhin declared a “march of justice” on Moscow. Wagner
mercenaries occupied a military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don and send a column
of troops toward Moscow until Prigozhin agreed to stand down some 24 hours
later.
In two months, Prigozhin and
other Wagner leaders would die in a plane
crash northwest of Moscow.
Prigozhin had desperately
wanted to enter Russian politics as a legitimate and equal player — and after
he failed to do it from the front door, he tried to get in from the back door,
Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace, told The Moscow Times.
“Both the secret preparation
of the failed Duma speech and his march on Moscow are attempts to regain the
president's favor. He did not want to take power, but to show his
capabilities,” Kolesnikov said.
“But he chose the wrong way
and miscalculated.”
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