Russia goes to war against itself

Russian Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is threatening to turn his private army’s guns on Russian government troops.  This afternoon, Prigozhin accused Russian military forces of attacking his Wagner soldiers with missiles and announced that he is “declaring war on the Russian Ministry of Defense,” according to a story in Newsweek.  “The evil brought by the military leadership of the country must be stopped," Prigozhin thundered.  “Those who destroyed today our guys, who destroyed tens, tens of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers will be punished.  I'm asking: No one resist. Everyone who will try to resist, we will consider them a danger and destroy them immediately, including any checkpoints on our way. And any aviation that we see above our heads.”  Prigozhin was apparently referring to air attacks on Wagner troops by Russian aircraft.  “Justice in the Army will be restored. And after this, justice for the whole of Russia,” Prigozhin continued in an apparent reference to Putin as being responsible for the injustice of his war on Ukraine. 

Prigozhin also issued an expletive-filled video on his Telegram channel accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of lying about why he launched the invasion of Ukraine last February 24.  In an apparent reference to the two-hour tirade issued by Putin on the eve of the invasion, accusing Ukraine of being led by “Nazis” and being in league with NATO in a planned attack on Russia, Prigozhin said bluntly, “There was nothing extraordinary happening on the eve of February 24.  The Ministry of Defense is trying to deceive the public and the president and spin the story that there were insane levels of aggression from the Ukrainian side and that they were going to attack us together with the whole NATO block. The special operation was started for a completely different reason.  The war wasn’t needed to return Russian citizens to our bosom, nor to demilitarize or denazify Ukraine.  The war was needed so that a bunch of animals could simply exult in glory.”

Prigozhin appeared to be doing what he has done repeatedly over the last six months:  attacking the Russian Ministry of Defense for various errors made in the war on Ukraine, rather than using the name of the real decision-maker in Russia, Vladimir Putin.  Prigozhin called the Russian invasion of Ukraine a “poorly planned operation.  The mentally ill scumbags decided, ‘It's OK, we'll throw in a few thousand more Russian men as cannon fodder. They'll die under artillery fire, but we'll get what we want.’ That's why it has become a protracted war.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense accused Prigozhin of issuing lies and said, “all of the reports and video footage from Yevgeny Prigozhin circulating on social media and allegedly showing ‘a Defense Ministry strike on Wagner Group rear camps’ do not correspond to reality and are an informational false flag."

Kremlin official spokesman Dimitry Peskov told the Kremlin-backed news outlet RIA Novosti that Putin was aware of Prigozhin’s charges.  “All the necessary measures are being taken,” said Peskov, sounding like Baghdad Bob during the initial days of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. 

Newsweek quoted Igor Girkin, a former Russian military commander and frequent Putin critic, on his Telegram channel: “A coup attempt is underway.  If this isn't a fake, the military coup has started. But if it isn't a fake, then the situation with the face-off between MoD [Ministry of Defense] and Wagner is out of control and needs immediate involvement by the president. If we still have him at all...”

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Ukraine continues its offensive on three fronts and a spokesman in Kyiv said that small gains had been made.

According to reports out of Russia this afternoon, however, the real war Vladimir Putin is facing is within his own military.