The Truth Shall Set You Free

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, in a photo released by Russian state media, addresses military units at the Kremlin following the Wagner group rebellion.Credit...Sergei Guneyev/Sputnik, via Associated Press

"[The president also] listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them options for further employment and further use in combat."

"The commanders themselves presented their version of what happened. They underscored that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the commander-in-chief, and also said that they are ready to continue to fight for their homeland."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov

"When you look from the point of view of Russian elite, it's ridiculous."

"It's just so unbelievable and just so shocking."

Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center

"[The delicate dance with Prigozhin is] a further compromise on Putin’s part and reflects his unwillingness to take tough and ruthless personnel decisions."

"He is willing to see Ukrainians bombed by the dozen, but not confront any of the figures in his own circle."

Mark Galeotti, head, consulting firm Mayak Intelligence

 

Hard to say what was more spontaneously contrived, Prigozhin's march on Moscow, or Vladimir Putin's concessionary assurances that all is well and under control. Forgive and set aside the forget part, at least for the moment. Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's rehearsed dedication of the Wagner group's loyalty to President Putin, aside and apart from his hostile resentment of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Gerasimov against whom he's been railing for months demanding their dismissal, has been accepted at face value. Mr. Putin's patronage of Prigozhin's private army so helpful in Ukraine guarantees no reprisals against Prigozhin -- for the time being.

 

A swift, but hardly damage-alleviating solution to an inconvenient contretemps on the part of two old colleagues. A rebellion, short in life, as the culmination of a long-drawn-out tantrum, put to rest in the greater interests of cooperative collegiality. At the three-hour June 29 meeting, hard on the heels of the pullback from Moscow by the Wagner convoy which had shot down and killed a number of Russian air fleet servicemen, trust and comradeship was restored.

 

Members of the Wagner private army guard an area as one of them helps to load a tank onto a truck in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on Saturday, June 24. (Vasily Deryugin, Kommersant Publishing House/The Associated Press)

 

President Putin delivered his assessment of the Wagner actions on the Ukraine battlefield, summing up the successes and failures of the mercenaries fighting alongside regular Russian troops. And addressed the apprehended revolt. The magnanimous tone setting the stage for loyalty earnestly pledged to Putin by the Wagner forces. The world knows this because Dmitry Peskov has revealed it to be so. The Kremlin under its Czar is firmly in control.

A mere temporary aberration, branding Prigozhin a traitor, vowing harsh punishment in retribution. Criminal case, what criminal case? Negotiations remain, behind closed doors. Russia's Defence Ministry published a video which featured military chief General Valery Gerasimov, one of the rebellion targets, the first time the general has been seen since the fizzled revolt. Some observers, predicted Tatiana Stanovaya, would be stunned by this truly peculiar turn of events.

The hands-off pretence favoured by Vladimir Putin of an absent link between the Russian state and Prigozhin's forces out of the cold and into the fold. That mercenaries are illegal in Russia belies the fact that Wagner has fought for Russian interests globally, its role vital in Bakhmut's capture in the longest and bloodiest battle of the Ukrainian invasion.Wagner does bestially brutal in fine style. The Russian military resented playing catch-up.

And how has that 'special military operation' been proceeding? It's been a costly venture for Russia. According to the first independent statistical analysis of Russia's war dead, close to 50,000 Russian men have been killed during the prosecution of the conflict. Relying on a statistical concept and drawing on inheritance records and offical mortality data, Russian media outlets Mediazona and Meduza along with a data scientist from Germany's Tubingen University used data from the Russian government itself to highlight one of Moscow's closest secrets; the human cost of the Ukrainian invasion.

Officially, Russia has acknowledged deaths of just over 6,000 of its soldiers. Moscow routinely -- and Kyiv as well -- is close-mouthed about its dead. Documenting the numbers of dead is recognized as an act of defiance; to illuminate the truth is to invite harassment and potential criminal charges in Russia. The BBC's Russian Service working alongside a network of volunteers made use of social media postings across Russia for a database to be built of confirmed war deaths. The truth will not be denied.

 

Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, was killed while jogging. He is accused of launching strikes on Ukrainian civilians including one that left four year old Liza dead. Picture: Social media/Alamy

 

"The submariner [senior Commander Stanislav Rzhitsky of Russia's Black Sea fleet's Kilo-class submarines capable of firing Kalibr cruise missiles] was jogging in the ’30th Anniversary of Victory’ park in Krasnodar. Around 6 a.m., he was shot seven times with a Makarov pistol. As a result of the gunshot wounds, Rzhitsky died on the spot."

"Due to heavy rain, the park was deserted, so there were no witnesses who could provide details or identify the attacker."

"Obviously, he was eliminated by his own men for refusing to continue to carry out combat orders from his command regarding missile attacks on peaceful Ukrainian cities."

Ukraine Defence Intelligence

 

A view shows a building destroyed by a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine July 10, 2023. Head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration Yurii Malashko via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS