The man behind Russia’s mercenary rebellion has seemingly resurfaced, appealing to the public for support that showed signs of weakening but not evaporating after days of Kremlin attacks.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to hint Monday that his fighters will soon return to the front lines of the war in Ukraine, as mystery continued to swirl over their fate after the short-lived mutiny that posed an unprecedented challenge to President Vladimir Putin.
The mercenary leader’s first apparent comments in a week came as the embattled Russian leadership worked hard to project order and unity.
But in a pair of public opinion surveys and a video of young Russians, there were signs that Prigozhin retained some public backing in spite of his armed insurrection and speculation about a crackdown in its wake.
‘We need your support’
An audio recording attributed to the Wagner chief was shared Monday by a Telegram channel that’s supportive of the Russian mercenaries and has shared material featuring Prigozhin in the past.
In it, a man with a voice very similar to Prigozhin and in his signature style says that “in the near future,” people will see “our next victories at the front.”
“I want you to understand that our ‘March of Justice’ was aimed at fighting traitors and mobilizing our society,” the recording says, referring to the name Prigozhin used for his revolt. “And I think we have achieved a lot of it.”
“Today more than ever we need your support. Thank you for that,” the recording says, without elaborating.
There were no details given about Prigozhin’s whereabouts or those of the tens of thousands of his mercenary fighters.
NBC News could not authenticate the audio message.
The Wagner chief has not been seen in public since the mutiny, only releasing an audio message last week in which he defiantly claimed that he never planned to topple Putin, but wanted to protect his fighters from being absorbed into the Russian defense ministry, with which he was embroiled in a bitter, monthslong feud.
Monday’s message is an “utterly self-serving narrative to engage in some self-rehabilitation” for Prigozhin, said Rajan Menon, director of the grand strategy program at Defense Priorities, a Washington-based think tank.
“The bottom line is that he owes everything to the system. And even though he’s a critic of the system, he’s a creature of the system,” Menon told NBC News.
“So the result of the revolt is that he stands to lose it all. They’re going after his assets. There’s a question of what happens to the Wagner Group. He’s an exile in Belarus … and I think he is now trying to put out a narrative that rivals that of the government.”
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