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From nationwide hero to drug-addled, bewigged zero: the Kremlin’s propaganda machine has turned towards Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.
In a sensational report on state-run Rossiya-1’s “60 Minutes” program on Wednesday night, the Kremlin’s propaganda assault canines performed footage of what they claimed was a raid of Prigozhin’s mansion and places of work, displaying money, weapons, medicine, a helicopter, a number of (Russian) passports — and a closet stuffed with horrible wigs.
“The investigation is constant,” stated pundit Eduard Petrov on the high of this system, referring to the probe into the mutiny led by Prigozhin final month, throughout which the chief of the Wagner Group of mercenaries marched his males to inside 200 kilometers of Moscow in a bid to oust the nation’s army management. “In actuality, nobody deliberate to shut this case,” he added.
It was an open declaration of struggle on Prigozhin, and got here after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his aides issued unbelievable assurances that the felony case into those that had organized the mutiny can be dropped if the warlord and his Wagnerites agreed to both disarm, signal contracts with the Russian protection ministry, or depart for Belarus. On Thursday morning, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who ostensibly negotiated the exile settlement with Prigozhin and Putin, advised state media the warlord was not within the nation.
“We have to work out who was on whose aspect,” Petrov pronounced on “60 Minutes.” “Who was on the mutineers’ aspect? They need to be punished and delivered to felony justice. So the nation understands that if an individual acts towards their authorities, they are going to be punished very, very harshly. Not ‘goodbye, I’m going out.’”
“Tomes” of proof is being combed over by Russian authorities, a gloating Petrov advised the viewers of the night present. “Very quickly, very very quickly, we are going to hear what stage the felony case is at.”
Cue: Footage — obtained from unnamed siloviki (a time period used to explain members of the army or safety companies) — of Russia’s particular forces raiding what Petrov described as Prigozhin’s “nest” — aka the places of work of his now-shuttered Patriot Media firm, and his palatial house.
“I imagine the picture of Yevgeny Prigozhin as a champion of the folks was completely created by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s well-fed media empire,” Petrov stated contemptuously and seemingly unironically — by no means thoughts that Rossiya-1 itself portrayed Prigozhin as a hero mere weeks in the past.
Remaking a homicide
Till just lately, the Kremlin’s propagandists painted Prigozhin, a 62-year-old one-time caterer and convicted felon, as a macho hero, a Russian Rambo decapitating traitors with sledgehammers on the entrance line.
Issues bought difficult when Prigozhin started publicly railing towards Russia’s Protection Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the Normal Employees Valery Gerasimov, ranting and raging to his rising cadre of devoted followers on social media.
Nonetheless, Prigozhin by no means criticized Putin, and Putin allowed Prigozhin to proceed constructing his model, as long as his males stored holding down the fort in probably the most brutal battles within the struggle on Ukraine. Then Prigozhin crossed the road by marching his males on Moscow.
Putin’s retribution was at all times going to be brutal — first, although, he’s destroying Prigozhin’s picture and undermining his status.
Again to Wednesday evening’s “60 Minutes.”
“Why did we neglect about Prigozhin’s previous?” an impassioned Petrov requested. “Everybody knew about it. Everybody talked about it. Spoke about the truth that he has been on trial twice. His felony previous.”
Displaying footage of what he stated was Prigozhin’s 600 million ruble (€6 million) mansion, Petrov crowed: “Let’s see how this champion of the reality lived — a twice-convicted champion — a champion who spoke about how everybody round him is stealing.
“Inside Yevgeny Prigozhin’s little home there’s forex mendacity round like this, in a field, held collectively by rubber bands,” Petrov continued. “Now let’s see the palace of the fighter of corruption and criminality, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Right here’s his palace. Right here’s his home. His daughter generally posts movies from right here, by the best way — and he or she’s not at all times in good situation.”
Then, the pièce de résistance of the video: a closet stuffed with dangerous wigs.
“Oh!” exclaimed Petrov because the footage rolled. “This can be a closet stuffed with Yevgeny Prigozhin’s secrets and techniques — wigs! Why does he want wigs at his home?”
It wasn’t lengthy till Telegram, the social media platform standard amongst Russians, was flooded with images of Prigozhin in a wide range of wigs and disguises. (Although intriguingly, the images appeared to return from a Prigozhin-friendly account known as “Launch the Kraken,” which stated it had sourced them from the Patriot Media archive.)
This system additionally aired footage of what Petrov speculated have been medicine present in Prigozhin’s mansion. A Prigozhin-friendly Telegram account which has beforehand featured voice messages from the warlord himself denied the home within the video belonged to Prigozhin, and claimed the “medicine” have been really laundry detergent.
Divide and conquer
Wednesday evening’s program was additionally designed to reassure Russians that not all Wagner fighters have been traitors and mutineers — together with his struggle effort stuttering, Putin can’t afford to lose tens of 1000’s of males from the entrance.
“There have been worthy folks in Wagner,” Petrov insisted — moments after a diatribe about Prigozhin recruiting a few of Russia’s worst criminals into the mercenary military’s ranks.
“The bulk!” minimize in “60 Minutes” host Yevgeny Popov. “Nearly all of folks acted heroically, took cities, served in good religion … and purchased their freedom with blood.”
“What’s completely clear: Prigozhin is a traitor,” Popov continued. “However Wagnerites — nearly all of them are heroic individuals who with weapons in hand defended our motherland. And plenty of of them have been lied to.”
Referring to Prigozhin’s Harmony catering firm and different companies that Putin admitted have been totally funded by the Russian state, Popov stated the warlord had obtained “billions in contracts.”
And searching for to cleave Prigozhin’s males from their exiled boss, Petrov stated: “The query is whether or not this cash reached the fighters and heroes of Wagner!”
Translation: Watch your again, Yevgeny.
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