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While it's not confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin is dead, or why, or how, it is not hard to figure out. Prigozhin publicly challenged Vladimir Putin and, not long after, his plane fell from the sky. President Vladimir Putin, of course, hasn't said a thing. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe BBC's respected security correspondent Franker Gardner noted Thursday: "Vladimir Putin does not forgive traitors nor those who challenge him." AdvertisementAdvertisementAlexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov told RT’s editor-in-chief they had nothing to do with the Skripals’ poisoning.
Persons: it's, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin, hasn't, GAVRIIL, Franker Gardner, Sergei Skripal, — Novichok, Luke Harding, Alexander Petrov, Ruslan Boshirov, Alexandr Litvinenko, Alexei Navalny, Boris Nemtsov, Putin Organizations: Service, Getty, Anadolu Agency, RT Locations: Wall, Silicon, Russian, Kursk, Russia, Moscow, Soviet Union, Britain, Berlin
CNN —Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of Russian mercenary group Wagner, was on the passenger list of a plane that crashed northwest of Moscow, killing all 10 on board, according to Russian state media. The bodies of eight people have been found at the crash site, state media outlet Russia 24 reported. Earlier, TASS reported the plane “burned up” on impact after being in the air for about half an hour. One of two Wagner planesVideo published by Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti showed a plane falling out of the sky with one wing missing. A separate video, also released by RIA Novosti, purports to show plane engine debris at the crash site.
Persons: Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner, Prigozhin, , Vladimir Putin’s, Reuters Wagner, , Volodymyr Zelensky, Joe Biden, Putin, ” Biden, I’m, FlightRadar24, Don –, Biden, Bill Burns, Antony Blinken, Burns, ” Burns, ” Blinken Organizations: CNN, Embraer, Federal Air Transport Agency, Russian Ministry of Emergency Services, TASS, Russian Investigative Committee, Wagner, Ostorozhno, Reuters, Nazi, Novosti, RIA Novosti, Wagner Group, Biden, Kremlin, CIA, NATO Locations: Moscow, Tver, Kuzhenkino, Russia, Belarus, Russia's Tver, Ostorozhno Novosti, Soledar, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Kursk, Soviet, Nazi Germany, Rostov, , St, Petersburg, United States
The Ukrainians and their allies, Solovyov insinuated, were “spreading a fake message about the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin” based on a report from Rossiya-24, a Russian state television channel. After all, Russian investigative outlets have reported that the Wagner head apparently employed at least one body double. Awaiting an impartial report from the Investigative Committee is like expecting a Russian state TV host to stop taking talking points from the Kremlin. The crash of Prigozhin’s plane happened just about two months after Prigozhin and Wagner staged their insurrection, the biggest challenge to Putin’s rule in over two decades. Russian investigative journalist Artem Borovik died in 2000 shortly after his plane to Kyiv crashed after take-off from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.
Persons: Yevgeny Prigozhin’s, Wagner, Prigozhin, Vladimir Solovyov, Solovyov, Yevgeny Prigozhin ”, Prigozhin –, Batya, , Vladimir Putin’s, Alexey Navalny, Putin, , Russia, That’s, Alexander Lukashenko, defenestration, Artem Borovik, Alexander Lebed –, cui bono –, Vanda Felbab, Brown, liquidating Wagner, , Vladimir Putin Organizations: CNN, Embraer, Kremlin, Russian Federation, Brookings Institution Locations: Kuzhenkinskoe, Russia’s Tver, Russian, Rossiya, Moscow, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Africa, St . Petersburg, Niger, Kyiv, Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, East
Plastic letters arranged to read "Sanctions" are placed in front the flag colors of Canada and Russia in this illustration taken February 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Acquire Licensing RightsOTTAWA, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Canada is imposing sanctions on 15 Russian individuals and three entities in what Ottawa said was a response to rising levels of human rights violations and violence faced by political opponents and critics in Russia, the foreign ministry said on Friday. The sanctioned individuals and entities are senior officials of the Russian government, judiciary and investigative committee, as well as federally funded courts, the ministry said in a statement. Reporting by David Ljunggren and Ismail Shakil in OttawaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Persons: Dado Ruvic, David Ljunggren, Ismail Shakil Organizations: REUTERS, Rights OTTAWA, Thomson Locations: Canada, Russia, Ottawa
“It’s knocked the Russians off balance a bit, but it is not doing anything decisive,” a senior defense official told CNN. Investigative Committee of Russia/Reuters“There’s more and more pressure on Crimea, and especially so in recent weeks,” that official told CNN. For now, the United States is not actively advising Ukraine against striking Crimea, according to the senior defense official. A stalled offensiveUS and Ukrainian officials openly acknowledge that the Ukrainian counteroffensive has not proceeded as quickly as had been expected and war-gamed in the months leading up to the push. “I’m not too optimistic that we’ll be at the Sea of Azov by Christmas,” said the US military official.
Persons: “ It’s, , Reuters “, , Vladimir Putin, Michael Kofman, ” Miles, “ I’m Organizations: CNN, Biden, Western, Reuters, Eurasia Program, Carnegie Endowment, International Locations: Ukraine, Crimea, Washington, Russian, Russia, Crimean, Kerch, Ukrainian, United States, Bakhmut, Azov, Europe,
Official accounts put the death toll at around 600 people, including several members of the security forces. Protesters accused the state of carrying out a mass slaughter; authorities claimed heavily armed demonstrators had attacked police. According to EIPR’s report, investigators at the time also said that the “Egyptian administration was also wrong in its policy of dispersing the gathering.”CNN has reached out to the interior ministry for comment about the EIPR report. Police “incrementally used alarms and tear gas, and did not resort to live ammunition until after several of its (security forces) members were killed and injured,” the summary said. “This wound and all its victims need to be mended,” the EIPR report said, quoting the recommendations.
Persons: Rabaa, Mohamed Morsy, Abdel Fattah el, Morsy, EIPR, Hossam Bahgat, ” Bahgat, EIPR’s, Medhat, Minshawi, ” Al, Egypt’s, , Fouad Abdel, Moneim Riad, , ” EIPR’s Bahgat, Bahgat Organizations: CNN, Adawya, Protesters, Egyptian, Personal Rights, Interior, Central Security Forces, Police, Rights Watch, UN Locations: Cairo, Egypt,
CNN —At least 35 people were killed and dozens more injured when a fire caused an explosion at a gas station in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, local authorities said. Several children were among the dead, according to the head of the Dagestan republic, Sergey Melikov, and at least three bodies were recovered from the rubble, state media agency TASS reported. TASS reported that 80 people were wounded, citing a department of the Russian ministry of health, in an apparent revision of the injury toll that Melikov earlier put at 102. The emergency ministry said it sent a special aircraft to evacuate casualties from the blast to hospitals in Moscow. The Dagestan government declared Tuesday a day of mourning, TASS reported.
Persons: Sergey Melikov, Vladimir Putin “, , Abdulmuslim Abdulmuslimov Organizations: CNN, TASS, Federal Center for Disaster Medicine, Ministry of Health, Russia’s, RIA Novosti, Kremlin Locations: Russian, Dagestan, Dagestan’s, Makhachkal, Moscow, Makhachkala
There was no immediate suggestion of foul play, and the Russian authorities told Tass that the blast was unrelated to the reports of drones flying near Moscow overnight. Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee said in a statement on the messaging app Telegram that it was looking into the possible “violation of industrial safety requirements.”“We are looking into the causes of the blast and collecting information about those injured,” Dmitry Akulov, the head of the district, wrote on Telegram, according to Tass. He said that more than 30 people had been injured, some seriously. The authorities ordered a “total evacuation” of all plant buildings and workshops.
Persons: ” Dmitry Akulov Organizations: Tass, Federal, Committee Locations: Moscow
An explosion erupted at a warehouse near the Russian capital of Moscow on Wednesday. The blast at the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant left dozens of people injured, reports said. The governor of the Moscow region said the warehouse was being used to store fireworks. Dramatic videos that circulated on social media captured the moments immediately after the blast at the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant in Sergiev Posad and showed a massive mushroom cloud looming over the area. According to The Moscow Times, the factory has produced things like night-vision devices and binoculars for the Russian security forces.
Persons: Posad, Andrei Vorobyov, Piro Ross Organizations: Wednesday, Plant, Service, Moscow Times, TASS, Associated Press, Russia's, Firefighters, Russian Emergencies Ministry, REUTERS Locations: Moscow, Wall, Silicon, Sergiev Posad, Moscow Region, Russia, Sergiev
In taking the monumental step of charging a former president with attempting to steal an American election, Jack Smith, the Justice Department special counsel, relied on an extraordinary narrative, but one the country knew well. For a year and a half, the special House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol introduced Americans to a sprawling cast of characters and laid out in painstaking detail the many ways in which former President Donald J. Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. In doing so, it provided a road map of sorts for the 45-page indictment Mr. Smith released on Tuesday. “In a lot of ways, the committee’s work provided this path,” said Soumya Dayananda, who served as a senior investigator for the House Jan. 6 panel. “The committee served as educating the country about what the former president did, and this is finally accountability.
Persons: Jack Smith, Donald J, Trump, Smith, , , Soumya Dayananda, wasn’t, ” Mr Organizations: Justice Department, Capitol, Department of Justice
MOSCOW, July 30 (Reuters) - Ten people were killed in central Russia after strong winds toppled trees and heavy rains disrupted the electricity supply in hundreds of settlements, Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations said on Sunday. Eight of the ten were killed and 29 more injured at a camping location near Lake Yalchik in the Mari-El region, the ministry said. Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal case into the incident that killed three children. Pictures posted by the ministry on the Telegram app showed cars and tents badly damaged and crushed by fallen trees. Storms disrupted the power supply in 520 settlements, damaged the roofs of 41 residential buildings and seven buildings that provide social services in eight different Russian regions, officials said.
Persons: Andrew Osborn Organizations: Russia's Ministry, Emergency, Russia's, Reuters, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, Lake Yalchik, El
The committee said on its website that "armed Ukrainian formations targeted and deliberately fired at a group of Russian journalists" working near Pyatikhatka, in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. It did not specify the type of weapons or munitions used, but said Rostislav Zhuravlev, a journalist for RIA state news agency, was killed. It said his RIA colleague and journalist Konstantin Mikhalchevsky, and two employees of Izvestia newspaper, Roman Polshakov and Dmitry Shikov, were injured. Ukraine, which received supplies of cluster munitions from the United States this month, has vowed to use them only to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers. Both sides have used cluster munitions during Russia's 17-month invasion of Ukraine.
Persons: Rostislav Zhuravlev, Konstantin Mikhalchevsky, Polshakov, Dmitry Shikov, Zhuravlev, Elaine Monaghan, Chris Reese Organizations: Russia's, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Russian, Pyatikhatka, Ukraine's, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, United States
MOSCOW, July 21 (Reuters) - Russian investigators have detained prominent Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, his wife said on Friday, a move which suggests authorities may have wearied of his criticism of how Moscow is running its "special military operation" in Ukraine. Girkin, who is also known as Igor Strelkov, helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014 and then organise pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine. In a message posted on Girkin's official Telegram account, his wife, Miroslava Reginskaya, said:"Today, at about 11.30, representatives of the Investigative Committee came to our house. Soon, according to the concierge, they took my husband out by his arms and in an unknown direction." She said friends had told her that Girkin had been charged with extremism.
Persons: Igor Girkin, Girkin, Igor Strelkov, Vladimir Putin, Sergei Shoigu, Miroslava Reginskaya, Andrew Osborn Organizations: Federal Security Service, Defence, Investigative, Reuters, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russian, Moscow, Ukraine, Russia, Crimea
CNN —Igor Girkin, a prominent Russian military blogger and former official in the separatist so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in Ukraine, has been arrested in Moscow, according to a message attributed to his wife and posted on his Telegram account and in Russian news reports. Girkin, also known by the nom de guerre Igor Strelkov, was reportedly taken from his apartment by Russian security officials Friday morning. Russian state news agency TASS said Reginskaya informed them about the extremism charge, and that law-enforcement agencies confirmed Girkin’s detention. Girkin is a former colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and served as defense minister in the DPR in eastern Ukraine. According to the court, Girkin participated in the conflicts in Chechnya, Transnistria and Bosnia.
Persons: Igor Girkin, Girkin, Igor Strelkov, , Miroslava, , ” Reginskaya, Reginskaya Organizations: CNN, Donetsk People’s, Investigative, Federal Security Service, DPR, Malaysia Airlines Flight Locations: Russian, Donetsk, Donetsk People’s Republic, Ukraine, Moscow, Chechnya, Transnistria, Bosnia
Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, helped Russia annex Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and then organise pro-Russian militias who took control of part of eastern Ukraine from Kyiv. Girkin's lawyer told the state news agency TASS that it was not clear why his client had been detained. RBC, citing two unnamed law enforcement sources, said Girkin's Moscow home was being searched and that he had been detained over a complaint against him made by a former Wagner employee. Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the R.Politik analysis firm, said the men who run Russia's law enforcement and power ministries had long wanted to arrest Girkin. Stanovaya said Girkin's detention was a signal that any of the bitterest critics of Moscow's approach to the war could face prosecution.
Persons: Putin, Igor Girkin, Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner, Igor Strelkov, Girkin, PUTIN, Miroslava Reginskaya, Girkin's, Tatiana Stanovaya, Stanovaya, Andrew Osborn, Kevin Liffey Organizations: RBC, Malaysia Airlines, Federal Security Service, of Angry Patriots, Kremlin, Telegram, Investigative, TASS, Thomson Locations: Russia, Ukraine, MOSCOW, Russian, Crimea, Kyiv, Girkin's Moscow
Blood seeps from the door into a puddle on the road as an occupants of another car implores the girl to keep still. The video was verified by Reuters as having been filmed on the Crimean Bridge. The damaged car’s colour, alloy wheels and open fuel cap matched video from the scene shot in daylight, which showed the same car on the damaged bridge. "Two civilians were killed – a man and a woman driving a car on the bridge. "At about 3 o'clock in the morning, the family heard the first bang, after which the lights went out on the bridge," the relative said.
Persons: Vladimir Putin's, Angelina, Alexei, Nataliya, Vyacheslav Gladkov, , Guy Faulconbridge, Lidia Kelly, Kevin Liffey, William Maclean Organizations: Reuters, Russia's, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Moscow, Ukrainian, Belgorod, Russian, Ukraine, Russia, Crimea, Europe, Melbourne
Why the Crimean Bridge is so important to Vladimir Putin
  + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Lauren Kent | ) edition.cnn.com   time to read: +5 min
Also known as the Kerch Bridge, it holds personal value for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Here’s what you need to know:Why is the bridge so important to Russia? The Kerch Bridge is strategically important because it links Russia’s Krasnodar region with Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014. Rail traffic across the Crimea bridge is continuing to operate on Monday, albeit with delays, according to video on social media, a Russian official and Russian state media. A widely circulating video, which appears to have been captured this morning from a train passing on the parallel rail bridge, shows significant damage to one of the bridge’s road spans.
Persons: Vladimir Putin, Putin, Staff, ” Vladimir Konstantinov, Boris Rozhin, , ” Putin, Dmitry Peskov, Marat Khusnullin, Ukraine Andrii Yusov, , ” Yusov Organizations: CNN, CNN Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukrainian military’s, State Council of, Novosti, TASS, Russian, Ukraine’s Security, Defense Intelligence Locations: Russia, Ukrainian, Ukraine, Moscow, Kerch, Crimea, Russian, Kyiv, Krasnodar, Europe, Kherson, Republic of Crimea
July 17 (Reuters) - Ukraine attacked the Crimean bridge overnight using unmanned drones on the water surface, Russia's Anti-Terrorist Committee said on Monday, according to state media. Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement that Ukrainian "special services" were responsible for the attack, and that it had opened a criminal investigation. Reporting by ReutersOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Organizations: Russia's, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Ukraine
WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. is "appalled" by a brutal attack in Chechnya on a prominent female Russian journalist and a lawyer, the State Department said in a statement on Thursday, and it urged Russia to conduct a transparent probe and ensure justice. Russia's Investigative Committee, the equivalent of the U.S. FBI, said in a statement on Wednesday that investigators in Chechnya had opened criminal cases. Milashina has spent years investigating purported human rights abuses in Chechnya. Novaya Gazeta was one of Russia's few independent news outlets until the government stripped it of its license last year. Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and Marguerita ChoyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Persons: Yelena Milashina, Alexander Nemov, Nemov, Ramzan Kadyrov, Vladimir Putin, Milashina, Kanishka Singh, Leslie Adler, Marguerita Choy Organizations: State Department, Novaya Gazeta, Wednesday, Kremlin, U.S . FBI, Thomson Locations: U.S, Chechnya, Russian, Russia, Moscow, Novaya, Washington
CNN —Elena Milashina, a prominent Russian journalist who uncovered the horrific crackdown on gay men in Chechnya, was severely beaten alongside a lawyer in an attack in the southern Russian republic, according to her employer Novaya Gazeta. Russia’s human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, “agreed to intervene in the situation on the request of the editorial office,” Novaya Gazeta said. Moskalkova also said she asked the Commissioner for Human Rights in Chechnya to ensure the safety of the journalist. Following her reporting on a crackdown on gay men in Chechnya in 2017, Muslim clerics in Chechnya called for “retribution” against her and other journalists. The country has a checkered record on gay rights, breaking up gay pride marches and passing anti-gay propaganda laws.
Persons: CNN — Elena Milashina, Alexander Nemov, Elena, Alexander, ” “ Elena Milashina, , Nemov, Milashina, Musaeva, Ramzan Kadyrov, Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin, Tatyana Moskalkova, Moskalkova, , Sergey Babinets, , Marie Struthers, Kadyrov Organizations: CNN, Novaya Gazeta, Milashina, Human, Novosti, Human Rights, Amnesty Locations: Russian, Chechnya, Grozny, Novaya, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Russia
Two teenagers were killed by Russian authorities in the Ukrainian city of Berdyansk, local news reported. The pair shot and killed a police officer and a civilian, according to reports. In May, a Ukrainian nonprofit said the 17-year-olds had be tortured by Russian law enforcement. The two 17-year-olds, referred to by Russian authorities as "pro-Ukrainian terrorists," were "neutralized," Russian news agency Interfax reported. Media Initiative for Human Rights, a Ukrainian nonprofit organization, reported in May that the teenagers had been tortured by Russian law enforcement.
Persons: , Tigran Oganisyan, Mikita, Oganesyan, Oganisyan, Khanganov Organizations: Service, Independent, Novaya Gazeta, Novaya Gazeta . Media Initiative, Human Rights Locations: Ukrainian, Berdyansk, Russian, Novaya, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine, Ukraiian, Berdyansk Ukraine
In the war-torn Chechnya region, Mr. Kadyrov built up a private fiefdom while professing loyalty to no official but Mr. Putin himself. A judo sparring partner from Mr. Putin’s youth became a construction billionaire and built Mr. Putin’s landmark bridge to Crimea. And then there was Mr. Prigozhin, who has said that he met Mr. Putin in 2000 as a St. Petersburg restaurateur. In Ukraine, as Mr. Prigozhin tells it, Wagner troops were only called in after Mr. Putin’s initial invasion plan failed. But Mr. Putin seemed to vacillate on his own support for Mr. Prigozhin.
Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Yevgeny V, Prigozhin, Putin’s, , , , “ Putin, Tatiana Stanovaya, ” Mr, Ramzan Kadyrov, Aleksandr G, Lukashenko, Mr, Wagner, tycoons, Boris N, Yeltsin, Kadyrov, Prigozhin’s, K.G.B, Donald J, Trump, Weeks, , Putin “, Andrei Soldatov, Prigozhin “, ” Mark Galeotti, ” Neil MacFarquhar, Valerie Hopkins Organizations: Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, ., Reuters, Federal Security Service, Kremlin, Television, Defense, Defense Ministry, Center for Locations: Russia, Moscow, Russian, Rostov, Chechnya, Belarus, Russia’s, Don, Ukraine, Putin’s, Crimea, St, Petersburg, United States, Syria, Africa, Ukrainian, Bakhmut
In the war-torn Chechnya region, Mr. Kadyrov built up a private fiefdom while professing loyalty to no official but Mr. Putin himself. A judo sparring partner from Mr. Putin’s youth became a construction billionaire and built Mr. Putin’s landmark bridge to Crimea. And then there was Mr. Prigozhin, who has said that he met Mr. Putin in 2000 as a St. Petersburg restaurateur. In Ukraine, as Mr. Prigozhin tells it, Wagner troops were only called in after Mr. Putin’s initial invasion plan failed. But Mr. Putin seemed to vacillate on his own support for Mr. Prigozhin.
Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Yevgeny V, Prigozhin, Putin’s, , , , “ Putin, Tatiana Stanovaya, ” Mr, Ramzan Kadyrov, Aleksandr G, Lukashenko, Mr, Wagner, tycoons, Boris N, Yeltsin, Kadyrov, Prigozhin’s, K.G.B, Donald J, Trump, Weeks, , Putin “, Andrei Soldatov, Prigozhin “, ” Mark Galeotti, ” Neil MacFarquhar, Valerie Hopkins Organizations: Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, ., Reuters, Federal Security Service, Kremlin, Television, Defense, Defense Ministry, Center for Locations: Russia, Moscow, Russian, Rostov, Chechnya, Belarus, Russia’s, Don, Ukraine, Putin’s, Crimea, St, Petersburg, United States, Syria, Africa, Ukrainian, Bakhmut
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was impeached from office Saturday. Many of the Texas House members who voted to impeach him were Republicans themselves. Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, a moderate Republican who later helped impeach Paxton, was vocally opposed, calling it an improper use of taxpayer dollars. For Texas House Republicans, it was more about strategy. This GOP-on-GOP conflict in Texas reflects a national struggle between Republicans that rarely, if ever, plays out the way it did in Texas, Jillson said.
Persons: Ken Paxton, , MAGA, Nate Paul —, Paxton, Paul, Cal Jillson, Jillson, Dade Phelan, Paxton —, Ken Paxton's, you've, Dan Patrick, Donald Trump, Phelan, It's, Kevin McCarthy, McCarthy, emasculating, Joe Biden Organizations: Texas House, GOP, Service, Southern Methodist University, Trump, Republican Party, Texas, Republican, New York Times, Texas House Republicans, Tea Party, The New York Times, Republicans, Caucus, Texas Republicans, Texas Republican Locations: Texas
MOSCOW, May 31 (Reuters) - Russia's most powerful mercenary, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Wednesday that he had asked prosecutors to investigate whether senior Russian defence officials had committed any "crime" before or during the war in Ukraine. Prigozhin's request is his most blatant public challenge to date against President Vladimir Putin's top military brass, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. The 61-year-old restaurateur-turned-mercenary has spent months insulting both Shoigu and Gerasimov, who are leading Russia's war effort, for alleged treachery. He says loyalty to Putin is part of his political stance, which he summed up as: "I love my motherland, I serve Putin, Shoigu should be judged and we will fight on." Prigozhin is not directly challenging Putin but rather playing a jester role and acting with the approval of those dismayed by the military's conduct of the war, officials, diplomats and analysts have told Reuters.
Persons: Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin's, Sergei Shoigu, Staff Valery Gerasimov, Prigozhin, PUTIN'S, Wagner, Putin, Russia's, Guy Faulconbridge, Gareth Jones Organizations: Staff, Investigative Committee, Russian Federation, Defence Ministry, Reuters, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Ukraine, Bakhmut
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