Dzmitry Bandarenka: Prigozhin Launches Military Uprising Knowing That Putin Is Weak

Russia is on the verge of a civil war.

On Friday, the leader of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced the start of a military coup in Russia. He has already managed to capture such cities as Voronezh and Rostov-on-Don. He’s marching on Moscow with his troops. Charter97.org asked Dzmitry Bandarenka, the coordinator of the European Belarus Civil Campaign, to comment on what is happening in Russia:

– Sure, this is a military uprising. I am sure that Prigozhin would never have taken such steps if he had not known something about Putin that most people do not know. The main thing is that Putin is weak. Perhaps Russia is under the control of some other person, a double. All this was the result of Russia's military failures and the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Prigozhin knows the situation at the front better than anyone else. I emphasize that this is a coup attempt, in which both oligarchs and, for sure, some military leaders as well as representatives of special services are involved. Prigozhin would not have decided to do this alone and there would not have been such results in less than a day after the start of the rebellion.

– Can Putin rely on someone in this situation? The FSB, National Guard, regular army?

– The repressive apparatus has been rebuilt for decades and there should be people who are ready to carry out Putin's orders, but his very speech left the impression that the person is simply insane.

With such a speech, emotions and message, one could speak on the issue of voting at the UN, and not being a leader in a situation when a civil war is likely to start.

In this regard, psychologically, and emotionally, Prigozhin looks much more convincing. Russia lives with such an animal instinct and some people may go over to the side of Prigozhin because he is much closer to them than such a civil Putin.

– Lukashenka's business jet took off last night. We know that he is in Turkey now. What are the reasons for this?

– We can say that Lukashenka took his family out at least. I believe that this is evidence that Lukashenka is participating in a conspiracy against Putin on the side of Prigozhin.

Otherwise, there would simply be no point in these moves. To summarize the situation at the moment, it is clear that Russia is already completely different. Bragging that “the economy is developing well”, and that “the war is going according to plan”, goes to hell. It was predictable that Russia was moving into a period of "time of troubles", revolutions, conspiracies and rebellions.