Global Courant 2023-05-24 11:45:37
(This story contains language that readers may find offensive in Section 5)
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, warned Russia could see a revolution similar to that of 1917 and lose the war in Ukraine unless the elite takes the war seriously.
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War II and the largest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Ukraine is preparing a counter-offensive to push Russian troops back to pre-2014 borders, when Russia annexed Crimea, Prigozhin said. Ukraine would try to encircle Bakhmut and attack Crimea, he added.
“Most likely, this scenario will not be good for Russia, so we have to prepare for a heavy war,” he said in an interview on his Telegram channel.
“We are in such a state that we can fucking lose Russia – that’s the biggest problem … We have to impose martial law.”
Prigozhin said his political outlook was dominated by love for the motherland and serving Putin. He said the nickname “Putin’s Chef” was stupid because he couldn’t cook, joking that “Putin’s Butcher” might be a more appropriate nickname.
The Russian elite, he said, protected their own children from the war, while the children of ordinary Russians perished at the front, a situation he said could cause unrest in Russia.
If ordinary Russians got their children back in zinc coffins while the children of the elite sun themselves abroad, Russia would face unrest along the lines of the 1917 revolutions that ushered in civil war.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Andrew Heavens)
