Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin resurfaces with new message – POLITICO

Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin gave the first sign of life in a week on Monday when he released an audio message thanking supporters of his latest failed uprising.

Prigozhin, commander of Wagner’s mercenary army, said in a 41-second audio message posted on Twitter. cable. “In the near future, I am sure that you will witness our next victories at the front. Thank you guys!”

Prigozhin, 62, went from folk hero to enemy number one in Russia after he led a 36-hour armed rebellion last month, seizing the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and sending his men 200 km (200 km) from the capital, Moscow.

He disappeared after President Vladimir Putin condemned the rebellion as a “stab in the back,” winning a judicial reprieve in a deal brokered by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko under which Prigozhin and his men would go into exile.

in the last statement Posted on his Telegram channels on June 26, the warlord said he ordered his men back to base to prevent a bloodbath and responded to suggestions he was trying to stage a coup.

Lukashenko confirmed that Prigozhin arrived in Belarus last Tuesday. The warlord’s whereabouts remain unclear and he has meanwhile been stripped of his Russian media assets. Prigozhin’s latest audio message was posted by Gray Zone, a sympathetic Telegram channel.