Has Russia avoided a civil war? Saturday evening, after a day under high tension, the paramilitary group Wagner finally left the city of Rostov, in the south-west of the country and captured the same morning. Throughout the day, the mercenaries moved closer to Moscow but Yevgeny Prigojine agreed to withdraw his troops after mediation led by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. A one-day rebellion that destabilized Russian power.
“The Russians had no intention of opposing Wagner”
For François de Labarre, senior reporter at Paris Match and Wagner specialist, the fact that Yevgeny Prigojine finally turned around to “avoid a bloodbath” is not surprising. “It is not surprising that there was no civil war because from the start the Russians had no intention of opposing Wagner. We saw images in Rostov, where the Russian population gave food to Wagner’s mercenaries, and the (Russian) soldiers did not fire a single bullet against Wagner.There were exchanges of fire, but the outbreak of civil war did not take place. “
A fairly predictable situation, according to the journalist. “This is a clan war between several people in power and not a civil war among the people and the Russian population. So it was settled, as one could have expected, with negotiations of which we do not know the details”, recalls François de Labarre at the microphone of Europe 1.
If, for François de Labarre, we must “rejoice that a warlord of a militia like Wagner” did not manage to “seize power in Russia”, all eyes are now on Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian presidency also immediately pointed out the “weakness” of the Russian leader “humiliated by Prigojine”.
“Putin has shown himself to be truly weakened”
“The real question is: what future for Russia and what future for Putin?”, Analyzes the great reporter at Paris Match at the microphone of Europe 1. “Putin has shown himself to be truly weakened, as he has never been, and his army is showing that it is no longer holding on and that he is obliged to regain control. Does he have power today? Probably not. Is he able to fight against corruption? Is he able to make this mobilization that he promised to respond to the Ukrainian counter-offensive? All this leaves a big point of doubt. questioning”, notes François de Labarre.
Be that as it may, this day of rebellion could have consequences for the aftermath of the war in Ukraine. Kiev, which has launched a counter-offensive for several weeks, “will be able to regain territory since it feels that in front of it, the army is no longer able to hold out against the offensive it has carried out for a few days”, concludes the great reporter.