“scumbag”, “absolutely useless”
Wagner boss attacks governor of St. Petersburg
04/07/2023, 10:11 p.m
What the head of the Wagner mercenary group, also known as Putin’s cook, thinks of the governor of St. Petersburg is well known. The attack on one of his cafés is the last straw for Yevgeny Prigozhin. He blames the mayor for the assassination.
In the Russian metropolis of St. Petersburg, a power struggle between the head of Wagner’s private army, Yevgeny Prigoshin, and the governor Alexander Beglow is coming to a head. Prigozhin berated the 66-year-old politician from the Kremlin party United Russia on Friday as a “scumbag” who was out of place in the city and called for criminal investigations against him again. Beglow has led the hometown of Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2018 – first as interim governor, then since 2019 as elected head.
The governor appointed by Putin has been under attack from the influential businessman for a long time. Now, however, Prigozhin accused the governor in his blog on the Telegram news channel of lying to the public and neglecting the security situation in the metropolis on the Gulf of Finland, which is popular with tourists. There was initially no comment from Beglow.
Specifically, Prigozhin, who runs his business and also Wagner’s private army from St. Petersburg, accused the governor of remaining inactive after the assassination of the Kremlin-affiliated military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin and was an ardent supporter of the Russian war against Ukraine, died in a bomb attack in a café in Prigozhin on Sunday. 40 people were injured. A woman was arrested as a suspected assassin.
“Beglov did not provide any assistance after this terrorist attack. Also, I believe that it is his fault that there is no security in the city that could have prevented it,” Prigozhin said. Law enforcement would have to deal with Beglow. “He’s absolutely useless to this town.” Shortly before, Prigozhin had filed a criminal complaint against Beglov with the national investigative authority in Moscow. He accuses the governor of allowing hundreds of cultural monuments, many of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites, to deteriorate in the former metropolis of the Tsars.