June 24—As of nighttime in Moscow Saturday, June 24, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, the mercenary army, had given the “turn back” order to a column of his armed forces and equipment heading north from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow, which he called his “march for justice.” This was, in fact, an armed insurrection; and Prigozhin is under charges filed against him yesterday for treason.
His audio announcement tonight that the Wagner forces should “turn around” comes after negotiations brokered by Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko, who earlier today spoke directly with President Vladimir Putin, and conferred on joint action. More details are beginning to come out on the conditions worked out.
Tonight’s turn of events may mark a pause in the episode, but not a pause in the danger from continuing idiotic escalation of provocations against a nuclear power, which can trigger a nuclear conflagration. A strong warning on this was given by former UN weapons inspection specialist Scott Ritter, who termed the Prigozhin rebellion incident an attempted “Maidan in Moscow Moment,” contrived by collective Western special forces—especially the British, and Ukraine circles. Ritter’s article on his website today is titled, “Prigozhin’s Gambit—Treason by Any Other Name,” and reviews in more detail the prepping of the mercenary group for insurrectionary action. Even the rhetoric of Prigozhin is right out of the playbook for color revolutions. In one audio issuance, he ranted, “We don’t want the country to continue to live in corruption, deceit and bureaucracy.”
Prigozhin’s name has come up in various ways in past shady domains of known Western intelligence special operations, for example, the bogus claim of Russian state interference during the 2016 Trump-Clinton election campaign. In recent times, there were reports on Prigozhin and Ukraine connections in the classified U.S. intelligence documents leaked by Airman Teixeira, known as the “Discord” documents, referring to the social platform used to share them.
According to a May 15 write-up in the Washington Post (always suspect for potential lies, of course) referring to alleged events in January 2023, and reporting on what was allegedly in the Discord documents, “Prigozhin said that if Ukraine’s commanders withdrew their soldiers from the area around Bakhmut, he would give Kyiv information on Russian troop positions, which Ukraine could use to attack them. Prigozhin conveyed the proposal to his contacts in Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, with whom he has maintained secret communications during the course of the war, according to previously unreported U.S. intelligence documents leaked on the group-chat platform Discord.”
President Putin laid out the stakes very starkly in his televised address to the nation early today.
“Today, Russia is waging a tough struggle for its future, repelling the aggression of neo-Nazis and their patrons. The entire military, economic and informational machine of the West is directed against us. We are fighting for the lives and security of our people, for our sovereignty and independence, for the right to be and remain Russia, a state with a thousand-year history.”
Saying that the Wagner group mutiny was “a knife in the back of our country and our people,” he explained the historical significance:
“A blow like this was dealt to Russia in 1917, when the country was fighting in World War I. But the victory was stolen from it: intrigues, squabbles and politicking behind the backs of the army and the nation turned into the greatest turmoil, the destruction of the army and the collapse of the state, and the loss of vast territories, ultimately leading to the tragedy of the civil war…. We will not allow this to happen again.”
Even as the details are just being made known of this Western-aided insurrection, what is dramatically clear is the necessity for citizens, groups and nations to activate without delay to stop the dynamic headed for nuclear holocaust, and undertake joint actions for national sovereignty, development and dignity for all. The newly formed International Peace Coalition has, among other initiatives, set August 6 as a day for coordinated international joint efforts.
