The owner of the Wagner private military contractor made his most direct challenge to the Kremlin yet on Friday, calling for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister.
The security services reacted immediately by calling for the arrest of Yevgeny Prigozhin and opening a criminal investigation.
In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin was taking the threat, security was heightened in Moscow and in Rostov-on-Don, which is home to the Russian military headquarters for the southern region and also oversees the fighting in Ukraine.
While the outcome of the confrontation was still unclear, it appeared likely to further hinder Moscow’s war effort as Kyiv’s forces were probing Russian defenses in the initial stages of a counteroffensive.
Prigozhin claimed early Saturday that his forces had crossed into Russia from Ukraine and had reached Rostov, saying they faced no resistance from young conscripts at checkpoints and that his forces ‘aren’t fighting against children.’
He claimed that the chief of the General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, scrambled warplanes to strike Wagner’s convoys, which were driving alongside ordinary vehicles.
Prigozhin said Wagner field camps in Ukraine were struck by rockets, helicopter gunships and artillery fire on orders from Gerasimov following a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, at which they decided to destroy Wagner.
The Wagner forces have played a crucial role in Russia’s war in Ukraine, succeeding in taking the city where the bloodiest and longest battles have taken place, Bakhmut.
But Prigozhin has increasingly criticized Russia’s military brass, accusing it of incompetence and of starving his troops of weapons and ammunition.
Prigozhin said late Friday his troops would punish Shoigu in an armed rebellion and urged the army not to offer resistance.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which is part of the Federal Security Services, or FSB, has charged him with calling for an armed rebellion, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
The FSB urged Wagner’s contract soldiers to arrest Prigozhin and refuse to follow his ‘criminal and treacherous orders.’
It called his statements a ‘stab in the back to Russian troops’ and said they amounted to fomenting an armed conflict in Russia.
President Vladimir Putin has been informed about the situation and ‘all the necessary measures were being taken,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Heavy military trucks and armored vehicles were seen in several parts of central Moscow early Saturday, and soldiers toting assault rifles were deployed outside the main building of the Defense Ministry.
The area around the presidential administration near Red Square was blocked, snarling traffic.
But even amid the heightened military presence, downtown bars and restaurants were filled with customers.
Prigozhin, whose feud with the Defense Ministry dates back years, had refused to comply with a requirement that military contractors sign contracts with the ministry before July 1.
In a statement late Friday, he said he was ready to find a compromise but ‘they have treacherously cheated us.’
‘Today they carried out a rocket strike on our rear camps, and a huge number of our comrades got killed,’ he said. The Defense Ministry denied attacking the Wagner camps.
