Photo of Exiled Wagner Boss Prigozhin in His Undies Surfaces
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via Telegram/Reverse Side of the MedalA photo of Vladimir Putin ally-turned-mutineer Yevgeny Prigozhin, showing him in his underwear in what appears to be a Wagner Group field camp, surfaced Friday just as Belarusian authorities announced the mercenary group has begun training troops in that country.The photo, released by a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel, shows the foul-mouthed warlord awkwardly sitting on a cot, without pants, and holding up a hand to apparently wave to the camera. The chan
But there was no way to immediately confirm that claim, and some have questioned whether it was deliberately leaked to counter an ongoing smear campaign against Prigozhin in Kremlin-controlled media.
The fate of the notorious Wagner Group had been the subject of fevered speculation since late June, when the Kremlin shocked the world by letting Prigozhin and his men evade punishment after shooting down several military choppers and killing a slew of service members in their armed uprising on Russian territory. At that time, the Kremlin said Prigozhin would be allowed to move to Belarus, though for several weeks it was not clear if that would actually happen.
Meanwhile, after publicly admitting that the “private” mercenary army the Kremlin has long denied having any ties to was actually bankrolled entirely by Moscow, Vladimir Putin has now claimed the group “does not exist.”
Putin claimed several commanders took a liking to his proposal, but Prigozhin quickly shut it down, saying his fighters “won’t agree with such a decision.”
With the Kremlin now trying to lure Wagner fighters away from their beloved boss, the rebellion Prigozhin unleashed last month appears to have spread to the regular Russian military, however. Dozens of high-ranking military officers were reportedly detained in the wake of Wagner’s incursion, one prominent general hasn’t been seen in public since, and a top general who was dismissed this week for accusing military leaders of covering up battlefield failures is already being praised among pro-Kremlin figures for speaking truth to power.
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