Life and death of Yevgeny Prigozhin: reality and conspiracy theories
we call to strengthen active actions of solidarity with the labor movement of Ukraine and, President of the Independent Trade Union of Ukraine «Zahist Pratsi» – Ukrainian Socialist League
He 23 August 2023, the news of the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the infamous Wagner Private Military Company, spread throughout the world. His death was commented on by the most influential statesmen of the capitalist world., from Vladimir Putin to Joe Biden. Interest in Prigozhin's personality only increases after his death, since it is also covered by a large number of secrets. The Embraer Legacy business jet 600 of Prigozhin on the way from Moscow and St. Petersburg exploded in the air and everyone on board the plane died…
Yevgeny Prigozhin began his life in Putin's hometown: St. Petersburg. Since the years 90 the last century, sus caminos de vida se cruzaron y se perfiló la cooperación empresarial. Después de que Prigozhin cumplió 9 years in prison, se convirtió en una «autoridad» entre la comunidad criminal de la ciudad, y Putin, como funcionario municipal y oficial de la KGB, controló todos los departamentos económicos clave de la oficina del alcalde de San Petersburgo. En la Rusia de los años 1990, el estrecho entrelazamiento de la mafia criminal y la burocracia corrupta era el fenómeno más común y extendido.
A principios de la década de 2000, Yevgeny Prigozhin, aprovechando su estrecha relación con Putin, se convirtió en multimillonario y desarrolló enormemente su negocio en diferentes direcciones. In 2012, con la bendición de Putin, created the Wagner Private Military Company to pursue the political and commercial interests of the Russian Federation in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Wagner units have been actively involved in many countries around the world: Libya, Syria, Sudan, Little ones, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Africa is a continent of, Madagascar y Venezuela.
Following the failure of the Russian army's lightning offensive in Ukraine in March 2022, Putin approached Prigozhin and Wagner's PMC with an offer to participate in the invasion of Ukraine. He responded to this proposal and already in the spring of 2022, Prigozhin units participated in the offensive of the Russian army in the Donetsk region. Prigozhin's division was distinguished above all by the capture of relatively small Donbass towns such as Popasnaya, Soledar y Bakhmut. Putin allowed Prigozhin to freely hire prisoners in prisons across Russia for PMC Wagner and the war in Ukraine.
Nevertheless, already in autumn, the whole world watched as serious conflicts began between Yevgeny Prigozhin and the leadership of the Russian army. Prigozhin considered that, as part of internal competition, the leadership of the Russian army decided to bleed its unit in battles with the Ukrainian army. He began to openly declare that the Russian Defense Minister, Shoigu, and the Chief of the General Staff of Russia, Gerasimov, They didn't give their unit enough ammunition, which condemned Wagner to great losses.
After the capture of the city of Bakhmut, Prigozhin announced that Wagner was going to the rear to rest and left the front line. At the same time, made several sensational public statements that it was Russia that launched the war against Ukraine. He also stated that the Russian government lied to the Russian people about the true reasons for this war and aggression against Ukraine.. In fact, at that time he became the informal leader of the "patriotic opposition", who had previously been loyal to the Russian authorities and personally to Putin.
Putin and his entourage sensed a serious threat from Prigozhin and gave the order to reassign Wagner directly to the Russian Defense Ministry and neutralize or even eliminate those who did not agree with this..
Prigozhin learned of this decision from the authorities and organized the so-called "March of Justice" towards Moscow., which was attended by some 5.000 PMC «Wagner» fighters. The march to Moscow was stopped by the efforts of the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who gave Prigozhin security guarantees and promised to transfer the entire PMC from Wagner to Belarus. What was then done. Several thousand Prigozhin fighters camped in Belarus and participated in the training of soldiers of the Belarusian army. Prigozhin himself, apparently, He was quite satisfied with the outcome of his confrontation with the Russian generals and was going to transfer Wagner's entire staff from Belarus to Africa.. Nevertheless, he 23 August 2023 It was the last day of his life. What happened and who is behind the murder of Prigozhin and the entire Wagner leadership?
Virtually all Western analysts have pointed to Putin asthe only probable person responsible for Prigozhin's murder. Prigozhin's coup d'état 23 Y 24 June 2023 It was the strongest blow to Putin's national and international authority. During the«march towards Moscow» there was not a single military unit that sided with the Russian authorities. Putin first appeared before Russian society as a pitiful and frightened old man.. It was adeep humiliation that Putin had never experienced. Of course, under these circumstances, his desire to take revenge on Prigozhin for his humiliation was quite understandable for the dictator.
Most analysts adhere to this version. Nevertheless, There are some other marginal versions of events. Russian opposition analyst Andrei Piontkovsky believes that it was not profitable for Putin to destroy Prigozhin, since this would automatically mean in the consciousness of the masses that he does not keep his word about the security guarantees he gave to Prigozhin during the negotiations to stop Wagner's campaign against Moscow. He believes that this murder was committed by the oligarchic opposition to Putin, with the aim of further weakening his power and discrediting him as a person. Of course, This discredit also affected the president of Belarus, Lukashenko, who also gave security guarantees to Prigozhin during the negotiations to stop the coup.
Opposition analyst Valery Solovey believes that we are facing a simulated assassination of Prigozhin. That is to say, in your opinion, Prigozhin survived, since he was warned about the imminent assassination attempt and did not board this plane. Another opposition analyst, Sergei Zhirnov, believe that he 23 August 2023, Prigozhin had already been killed on Putin's orders and his body was thrown into the wreckage of the crashed plane.. Nevertheless, All of these hypotheses are extremely marginal and do not change the general logic of the analysis of this situation..
For many years, Putin's power has succumbed to its sacralization and Prigozhin destroyed it in just a few days. Prigozhin gained immense popularity in Russia as a man who decided to engage in open struggle with the authorities. The entire world was surrounded by images of how the inhabitants of Rostov hugged and took photographs with Wagner's fighters. Quite unexpectedly, Protest moods in Russia began to focus on Prigozhin's personality, and Putin did not understand at all where this situation could ultimately lead. The liberal-bourgeois opposition has long surpassed the peak of its popularity in Russia. The so-called “leftist” opposition represented by the “Communist Party of the Russian Federation” has long been closely integrated with the Putin regime. But the electorate conditionally"patriotic" He quickly began to become disillusioned with Putin and turned increasingly toward the charismatic Prigozhin, the hero of the«captura de Bakhmut» Y"fighter for justice".
Until now there are disputes about the causes of the explosion of Prigozhin's plane. Several analysts believe that Prigozhin's plane was shot down by missiles from the Russian air defense system (Air defense). Nevertheless, US intelligence said it had no data on the missile launch. There is also a version that the explosion occurred due to a bomb that was inside the plane.. The official investigation by the Russian authorities is still ongoing and has not yet given its conclusion., although initially it doesn't inspire much confidence...
Prigozhin's death did not complete any of the key political processes in contemporary Russia. Unlike, only exacerbated and exaggerated all the problems Putin's government was facing in the middle of 2023. Huge expenses of the state budget for the war, a sharp depreciation of the ruble, a systemic crisis of economic production, exacerbated by a sharp decline in oil and gas export revenues and severe economic sanctions…
The crisis of Russian imperialism is obviously related to the crises of Western and Chinese imperialism. Nevertheless, It seems that it is Russian capitalism that may act in the very near future as a kind of "weak link" in the world imperialist system. But Yevgeny Prigozhin will no longer see this…
