This just in: Over the weekend the leader of the Wagner mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, turned around his troops’ march towards Moscow.
Monday morning he released a new audio explaining he make that decision for two reasons.
- Prigozhin said he wanted to avoid Russian bloodshed and
- He said the march was a demonstration of protest and not intended to ‘overturn power in the country.’
The purpose of his forces’ march toward Moscow, he claimed, was to prevent the “destruction” of Wagner private military company, and “to bring to justice those who, through their unprofessional actions, made a huge number of mistakes during the special military operation.”
Prigozhin said the march stopped when the detachment “made a reconnaissance of the area, and it was obvious that at that moment a lot of blood would be shed. We felt that demonstrating what we were going to do was sufficient.”
Prigozhin maintains ‘We went to demonstrate our protest and not to overthrow power in this country.’
He has now gone into hiding in Belarus.