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Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the private military group Wagner, denied trying to overthrow the Russian government when his forces entered Moscow over the weekend.
In an 11-minute recording posted on Telegram on Monday, Prigozhin said he instead intends to oppose the recent decision to disband the militia and demonstrate the weakness of the system. Russia’s domestic defense system.
“We do not have the goal of overthrowing the current regime, getting legitimate elections, as we have said many times,” said Prigozhin, who did not mention President Vladimir Putin by name.
“Our decision to turn back was based on two important factors,” he added. “First of all, we don’t want to shed Russian blood. Second, we march to protest, not to overthrow the government.”
“The goal is to prevent Wagner’s destruction [private military company] and accuse those who, with their unprofessional actions, have made a lot of mistakes during the special military operation,” said Prigozhin, using the official Russian euphemism for total invasion. represented in Ukraine.
This is an evolving story
