Yevgeny Prigozhin’s “interview”. 23 June 2023

16 min read

Jun 24, 2023

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian warlord (Wagner Group), initiated something of an armed rebellion against Putin’s government last night. Yesterday, he recorded a half-hour video — a monologue on the state of the Russian military, the war in Ukraine, and more. Here’s the transcript, made using Whisper AI and translated with the help of GPT-4. Some limited proof-reading and editing were done, but there may still be a number of inaccuracies and/or errors.

Prigozhin’s look-alike. [Midjourney v. 5.2]

Disclaimer:

I personally loathe the speaker, Prigozhin, who has been a career criminal of the lowest kind, a thug, a torturer, and now, above all, a war criminal. He is known to be an active perpetrator of crimes against humanity and mass murder during the unlawful war launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine. That said, this text is firstly an impressive document, albeit maybe trivial for those familiar with the history of military coups like the one unfolding now. Secondly, it is, I believe, quite instrumental for understanding the context of current events.

….

So, let’s start with how the so-called special operation began. In 2014, a military coup occurred, a rebellion in Ukraine, Russians were being oppressed, Russians went to Donbass, and we held our ground in Donbass. After we defended Donbass, we were supposed to move out in the autumn of ’14 and secure the lines of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, and so forth along the border of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), but this was not done, a full stop was put because the army was unsure whether they could handle it and there was no willful decision made. Therefore, the fate of Donbass remained in limbo. From ’14 until ’22, Donbass was being carved up. Donbass was being pillaged by various people, some of them were from the presidential administration, some from the Federal Security Service (FSB), and some were attracted oligarchs, like Kurchenko. These are the people who stole money from the residents of Donbass, who were in the unrecognized republics of LNR and DNR.

In this LNR and DNR, there were People’s Militia corps, which were supposed to put up a decent resistance in case of an attack by Ukrainians. However, these corps did not exist, in fact, there was a minimum number of fighters and a certain number of generals just embezzled these funds. With a salary of 40 thousand, 20 thousand was left in the caste, 20 thousand was given to the one who signs, if the fighter existed and sits at home, no training was conducted, and ‘dead souls’ simply received this money, generals got money for these ‘dead souls’ and budgets were plundered. Donbass was a wonderful place, where money was being embezzled like the staff of the president’s administration. At first, it was Surkov, then it was the Kazakh, the FSB also had a very clear hierarchy of generals.

Now, as for why the special operation started. The Ukrainians had a grouping that was on the borders with the territory of Donbass, precisely the one we were breaking through from Popasna to Artemivsk. This group consisted of various voluntary, so to say, nationalist formations, and also consisted of the active Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). This group was exchanging fire. We were shooting at them, they were shooting at us, and this was happening for all these long 8 years from ’14 to ’22. Sometimes the number of different shootouts, roughly speaking, the exchange of ammunition, the exchange of shots, sometimes increased, sometimes decreased. On February 24, there was nothing extraordinary. Now the Ministry of Defense is trying to deceive the public, trying to deceive the president and tell the story that there was mad aggression from Ukraine, and they were about to attack us together with the entire NATO bloc. Therefore, the special operation, so-called on February 24, it started for entirely different reasons. Now about the army. The army, starting from ’12, — it all started earlier, with Serdyukov, — but starting from ’12, when Shoigu was sent there, the army was doing nothing. Each conscript was given three rounds of ammunition, like in the worst Soviet times, although even in Soviet times it was not like that. They did not engage in combat training, they were not trained on various types of weapons, especially modern ones, — and therefore the army in Russia was in such a poor state that it could not carry out any large-scale combat operations. Shameful campaigns like the Syrian one, where private military companies (PMCs) performed the main task, and the military flew planes, absolutely shameful boorish things that they, we did in Syria, like crossing the borders of neighboring countries on planes, which all the commanders warned Shoigu and Gerasimov about multiple times, — they did not give the army any combat experience. A huge number of generals adorned themselves with Hero of the Russian Federation stars like a Christmas tree, most of whom never went anywhere in their lives, they received the Hero of Russia simply for once flying from Moscow to Khmeimim on a comfortable plane with a leather interior and a polished table and then returning. For this, they received the star of the Hero of the Russian Federation. They discredited the rank, they destroyed this rank. Clowns, who all day long were licking the ass of the Minister of Defense and his entourage, — they were getting the next military rank and awards. Under Shoigu, the soldier ceased to exist as a creature whose word can be said, whose opinion can be heard. Therefore, the absolute lack of training in the army, lack of management, lack of weapons, and many other factors met the Russian army on February 24, ‘22.

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The whole operation was kept secret. Those commanders who were supposed to manage the most serious directions in case of, strictly speaking, a war that was unleashed, they were not aware of what was happening. Victory maps, like in the times of the Great Patriotic War with beautifully drawn markers and pencils, decorated with arrows, were carried to the Minister of Defense Shoigu by those who had never held a weapon in their lives. And so, the outcome was what it was. Now the basics: why the special operation began. The beautiful story of demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. It would have been possible if the regime had been changed within three days, although from how deeply I am immersed in this story, Zelensky, when he became president, was ready for any agreements. All that needed to be done was to descend from Olympus, go and negotiate, because all of Eastern Ukraine is populated by people who are genetically Russian, and therefore what is happening today — we are going to kill these genetically Russian people. So, a badly planned operation, exercises conducted beforehand — and for some reason, a bunch of idiots decided that they were so crafty that no one would understand what they were doing during the exercises, and no one would stop them when they went to Kyiv, and no one would have stopped if these degenerates hadn’t built long columns, hadn’t given 0.2 combat loads for each type of weapon (0.2 combat loads is a few hours of combat) and hadn’t sent barefoot and unarmed soldiers towards Kyiv and other areas. No state, as I’ve said many times, has that kind of defense at its borders that can withstand the penetration of an army, even if it is coming with one round, so they immediately jumped onto the territories where they are now, reached Kyiv, hovered around Kyiv, instead of making urgent decisions and moving on, they just left, and they were not enough. And he cowardly sat in his office, and at the end of the first day, he was very surprised why the thousands of missiles that were launched, which struck without having proper intelligence, without having anything, just hit anything, why the troops cannot advance, then the ruthless throw of airborne troops under Gostomel — guys who flew in and died, guys didn’t know what they were doing, what their tasks were. They knew that they had to stand there and do their duty.

So, in the first days of the war, Shoigu destroyed thousands of Russian soldiers, he ruined the most combat-ready part of the army, and the combat-ready part was a very small part of the army, because for many years the army had nurtured sycophants, and any active person either left the army or was ready to leave immediately. When the disgrace of the special operation began in the first days of the Russian troops, running out of ammunition on the territory, they didn’t understand what to do, and I asked many officers and generals why this happened, and they all said, these scum, I underline, they said the word scum, referring to the military-political leadership of the country, they didn’t tell us where we were going, and the Ukrainians, knowing about the exercises, undoubtedly mobilized minimum forces, undoubtedly gave people in Kyiv weapons, and instead of coming, if we needed it, press the country’s top leadership, take on our side those who can make decisions, and immediately propose agreements, saying, we have been under Kyiv for a day, we will move on, move on and move on, but now we have the opportunity, let’s agree, first crisis committee, we put our people in this crisis committee, discuss the fate of Russian citizens, and then the Ukrainians will be forced to make concessions, mentally ill scum, mentally ill bastards decided, nothing terrible, we will throw a few more thousand Russian guys into the meat grinder, they will die like dogs under the fire of enemy artillery, but we will achieve our own, and this is also an option, and so you can also do, if you are ready to answer for your words, if you are ready to go forward to the end, but they are not ready to go to the end, they want to live in comfort, they are not ready to go bury their relatives in the cemetery, as thousands of mothers and thousands of sons and daughters of their fathers bury, so the war went into a protracted character, instead of gathering all together, making a table for 50 people, call all generals, all people who can give some advice, some explanations, we still have isolation in the country, and so no one of the decision makers gathered, they all negotiated over the phone, and when I began preparing the Wagner PMC unit at the beginning of the special operation, because perhaps we would need to urgently fly out of Africa, it was already known at the end of February ’22, when I gathered the operational group in my office, to track what was happening, it was clear that there was a monstrous, shameful defeat of our soldiers, soldiers were dying, soldiers were being hit mercilessly not only in their lives but also in reputation, African leaders began to massively contact me, and everyone asked one question, how could Russia fall into such monstrous disgrace?

The second most powerful army in the world, as it was so hyped, of course it was understood that it was not the case, it was a bubble, but at least something could be shown from it. The shame was that Russia got into such a deep mess, everyone was counting on a miracle, on tactical nuclear weapons, on a nuclear bomb that is about to be dropped on Warsaw, but they lack the guts, the old guys are too weak, they can’t get out of their comfort zone, at that time I was still allowed to come to Frunzenskaya Embankment in the General Staff. Shoigu feasted at his table every day, he had just as festive lunches that he holds every day from one to two, where all the deputies gather, the tables are breaking from caviar and cognac, he also entertained guests, gifts, in the middle of March we were called to war, Shoigu hid, he was not seen, this was a trembling old man who was thinking about how to get out of this situation, and at this moment he should have been thrown into the scrapheap of history, and wait for him to be judged and punished for the fact that by that time he had already destroyed tens of thousands of lives of boys, the first deserters appeared, to make sure that no one would know about them, they began to terminate contracts retroactively, and in the end, the military who received salaries for years, who received apartments, who lived at the expense of the state, at the expense of ordinary guys who worked at the factory, on the tractor or somewhere else, these military men went home, there was no concept of what desertion is, and after that these guys who maintained these military for years, they were taken, put under the gun and made them mobilized, and now let’s stop from the mobilized, why was the war needed, the war was needed so that a bunch of creatures could just celebrate and publicize, showing how strong an army they have, so that Shoigu could become a marshal, this decree was already prepared and he received the second star of a hero, because he very much wanted to go down in history as a great Tuvan military leader who became a double hero and a marshal in peacetime, the war was not needed to return Russian citizens to our bosom and not to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, it was needed for the sake of one star with additional embroidery around the perimeter, so that one mentally ill person, when he lies in the coffin, would have this star brought on the pillow. That’s the first thing.

And the second thing — the war was needed by the oligarchs, it was needed by that clan, which today effectively runs Russia. This oligarchic clan — it gets everything that’s possible. If this clan’s overseas businesses are being shut down, the state immediately divides the domestic businesses and hands them over to them. That’s why businessmen are being jailed, banks are being closed so that the clan doesn’t lose its money volumes. They don’t need money, they have long since done everything for themselves, clinics with special equipment, in case God forbid they get cancer and everything else, to live as long as possible, this is the oligarchic elite, it only thinks in one thing, how to wire its body as long as possible, and for the body to be in as good a condition as possible. This is their brain disease, they don’t think about the country, people, war, anything but themselves. So, the second most important task of the operation was the appointment of Medvedchuk as the president of Ukraine by some president. That very Medvedchuk who had already sneaked into Kyiv in advance, sat and waited for the troops to come, Zelensky to flee, everyone to lay down their arms and he would become the president of this Ukraine. The task was in material assets, which would have to be divided after they take it under control and it would be nice to punish Zelensky’s regime, it would be nice to punish the Americans for what they did with the coup in Ukraine in ’14, but for that there was plenty of time, which was missed. I’ll come back to this, but now we’re talking about material values, about financial resources, because they were stealing in Donbas in bundles. But they wanted more, they decided to put Medvedchuk. Medvedchuk was arrested, he was exchanged for all of “Azov”. But if we want to denazify Ukraine… Azov — it’s the basis of the nationalist structures of Ukraine. Why did we exchange him? Why is he so dear to us, why didn’t we shoot “Azov” — and the main question: why didn’t we exchange “Azov” for the captive fighters, for the soldiers, — but exchanged for this carrion, for Medvedchuk, who has everything, that is — good friendly relations, let’s say, in the country’s leadership?

After we took over the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, the first thing that happened was that bulldozers, metal, and so on started to be massively pulled out of there. When we took Popasna and put a guard on the factories, — if we took these factories and didn’t destroy them, then why not work on them? People came there, started dismantling the equipment and taking it towards Russia. Artemivsk champagne factory, which we managed to save, — just because it happened so accidentally: when we took these mines, there were small shootouts, and the Ukrainian units just ran away for fear of being destroyed. So, the Artemivsk champagne factory — we took 10–15 bottles from it for souvenirs and sent two cars to Ukrainian women. Everything else was left in place. Decisions are already being made today about when it will be launched. But why on earth would it be launched? Who will it belong to, who will it bring profit to? Certainly not the people of Donbas. A hundred percent there will immediately be an owner who will be sawing off these funds, and therefore everything that happened, our sacred war with those who offend the Russian people, with those who try to humiliate them, turned into a simple racket, or rather into ratting, elevated to the level of law, to the level of national ideology.

On March 19, I first arrived in Ukraine. I asked the commanders on the ground why we weren’t reporting the number of our soldiers killed or wounded. I was told that the higher-ups weren’t interested in such details: there was a mission that needed to be accomplished. The body count would be addressed later, after the war. No one was interested in what measures would be taken to achieve victory. By the time we arrived, talking about victory was impossible as progress was minimal. In order to gain control over Ukraine, we had to either capture Donbass, reach the left bank of the Dnieper, or take over the entire country, excluding Lviv and Western Ukraine — or including Lviv, that’s another story. Alternatively, we just needed to replace the leadership. We failed to change the leadership, and it was clear at that time that we wouldn’t capture Donbass with the resources we had. Every day, there was a need to report an advance of 50–100–200 meters. There was no control, just continuous hysterics, the state of our arms was a complete mess, it was chaos everywhere, absolute mayhem. If it weren’t for this chaos, instead of ten people dying, it would be one. But ten died instead of one. Someone has to answer for the lives of these soldiers. They didn’t come back home — some were buried, but a huge part are those who went missing. Every day, relatives of various soldiers write to me asking questions — soldiers not associated with the PMC. The number of missing persons we witnessed was simply impossible. They were discarded like meat because there was no way to retrieve them from the field — and this is still being covered up. The incompetency of the General Staff is a separate story. From the very first days, there has always been a running joke among the soldiers, officers, and generals: the one thing needed to win the war is to shut down Frunze. If any unit achieved any results at the front, it would immediately be split in half: one part was supposed to continue offensive operations — clearly, they couldn’t manage it — and the other half would be relocated to a different sector of the front. Why was this done? We all believe it’s due to sheer stupidity. Because the Chief of the General Staff and Shoigu themselves manage all operations. If a general thinks something should be done differently, they’ll still be made to shut up and told what to do. If he disobeys, like Muranov (?) and other generals did… If he obeys, a great number of people will die. But it will be overlooked, because he’s obedient. These remnants of military units were shuffled from place to place “for reinforcement”. As a result, there isn’t a single brigade or division that could fight at full strength; everything is mixed up. This causes a complete lack of control. Since there is no control, every military leader has their own answer to the question of why this or that task wasn’t accomplished. Eventually, to avoid having the Chief of the General Staff consumed by paranoia, shouting and trying to fire people — and there is a chain of command, first it’s the Chief of the General Staff, then the Minister — they first fire you, then you have to apologize to them, assure them that you will continue to serve loyally, humiliate yourself, as happened, by the way, with Teplinsky. In the end, you remain on the defensive. This lack of control doomed 80 percent of the soldiers who died in this war.

Next up — ammunition. It’s important to understand that for Russians in general there is enough ammunition. It’s stored in warehouses, and it’s only not issued for one reason, because, again, low-skilled people believe that this ammunition should stay in the Moscow region, just in case, if by some accident they themselves might be affected. And so, if you took ammunition worth 5 million, you would have to pay an insurance fee, colloquially known as “the coffin 5 million”. The ratio is absolutely identical, but generals believe that there are plenty of people. The generals who make the decisions — not those who are actually fighting on the ground. That’s why soldiers are sacrificed instead of using ammunition.

With Wagner, it’s a separate story. They didn’t provide us with ammunition in order to wipe us out, because they fully understood that we would remain the force that wouldn’t be brown-nosing the military leadership, which is sending soldiers to their graves. They tried to wipe us out in Bahmut, but it didn’t work. We got out of Bahmut. They tried to mine our exits — it didn’t work. Everything was aimed at annihilating the Wagner PMC. They still hope that they can win this war. But since there’s no control, no military successes, the Ministry of Defense leadership carefully deceives the president, and he gets reports that in no way correspond to reality.

Two narratives are being shaped: one on the ground, the other on the president’s desk. That’s why we hear all day about 60 destroyed Leopards, about 3,000 eliminated enemy soldiers. When you destroy a Leopard, you send up a drone and film it. It stands still, burned out. The videos that have widely circulated in the media are the only case when the Ukrainians ran into our air force. It was all calculated in advance: first the air force, then the infantry struck them, and two Leopards were destroyed, plus one T-72 there, plus several Bradleys. All of this is shown from different angles. Nobody destroyed 60 Leopards, it’s total utter nonsense. Shoigu lives by the principle of “survive”. For a lie to be believed, it must be monstrous — and therefore, there are deceptions. Two realities. On the ground now, today, the Russian army is retreating in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson directions. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are pressing the Russian army, we’re washing in blood, nobody gives reserves, there’s no control at all. But then the Chief of the General Staff, after a glass of vodka, screeches into the phone like a market woman, like a pig, demanding to regain positions. And all the commanding officer can do is to say that everything has been reclaimed. And to draw a red line on the map a few kilometers north of where it actually is today. Therefore, what they tell us is a profound deception.

We will only face the fact at the moment when it becomes as it already was at Krasnyi Lyman, in Kherson, and in many other places. These scumbags, realizing that they’ve lost a colossal chunk of territory, will gather and declare that they have regrouped and retreated to more advantageous positions. The same thing is happening in Bahmut: the enemy is penetrating deeper and deeper into our defense. The enemy doesn’t kill their soldiers, the enemy conserves equipment. The only thing the enemy doesn’t economize on is ammunition. Therefore, soldiers die or leave with injuries. And every injured soldier won’t be able to pick up a gun tomorrow. Time is rapidly collapsing.