Global Courant 2023-05-24 19:46:00
Russian conscripts called up for military service line up for departure for garrisons as they gather at a recruiting center in Simferopol, Crimea.Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters
Wagner boss Prigozhin said Putin may face a “revolution” over his outrage over the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s elite not sending “fat, carefree” kids to war could lead to public unrest, he added.
The Times reported that Prigozhin compared the current environment to the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Russian President Vladimir Putin could have a “revolution” on his hands because of his failed war in Ukraine, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said.
In a swear word during an interview with pro-Kremlin blogger Konstantin Dolgov, the head of the Wagner group called out the Russian elite for protecting their children from entering the war, according to a translation from The Times.
“The children of the elite smear themselves with creams and show off on the internet, while the children of ordinary people come home in zinc coffins, torn apart,” he said, according to The Times. “I recommend that the elite of the Russian Federation collect their youth, bitch, and send them to war.”
Prigozhin said their “fat, carefree” life could spark outrage and a “revolution” that would see working-class workers storm the elite’s “villas” with “pitchforks.”
That revolution, he concluded, “could end like it did in 1917,” referring to the Russian Revolution of 1917, when civilians overthrew Tsar Nicholas II and his family.
The comments come as Russian troops, including members of the Wagner Group, claimed victory in Bakhmut over the weekend. Ukraine disputed the victory, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisting to G7 leaders in Hiroshima that Kiev soldiers were still fighting for control of the region.
Prigozhin’s volatile attitude and criticism of Putin are increasingly shocking, but still the Russian president too dependent on Wagner’s army to punish Prigozhin.
Read the original article Business Insider
