Press service of "Concord"/Handout via REUTERS
- Yevgeny Prigozhin is alive and well at a camp in Belarus with his exiled Wagner troops.
- In a new video, Prigozhin criticized Russia's war in Ukraine again, calling it "a disgrace."
- Prigozhin has repeatedly called out Russian military leadership — and lived to tell the tale.
How does he get away with it?
In a new video posted Wednesday, Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin once again criticized Russia's war in Ukraine, calling it "a disgrace."
"Right now, what is happening on the front is a disgrace that we don't need to get involved with," he said, addressing Russia's defenses against Ukraine's grinding counteroffensive.
Prigozhin also addressed the future of Wagner, detailing that his forces would remain in Belarus "for some time" before preparing for upcoming deployments abroad, including "a new journey in Africa."
Wagner troops may return to Russia, but only when they "are confident that we will not be forced to shame ourselves," he assured.
Prigozhin's latest comment bashing Russian military leadership and the Kremlin is a surprising reminder that although he's been significantly weakened by Wagner's failed mutiny and the Kremlin shutting down his media networks and troll factories, Prigozhin hasn't been silenced — and may remain a thorn in Russian President Vladimir Putin's side.
Putin may just not know what to do with his old ally, who earned the nickname "Putin's Chef" after the Russian president began eating at his restaurants and giving his catering business government contracts.
Earlier this year, Prigozhin earned a reputation for publicly pushing back against higher-ups and decision-makers, criticizing a lack of ammunition for his troops and threatening to pull them out of Bakhmut if his conditions weren't met.
Prigozhin's tendency to break ranks culminated in Wagner's aborted mutiny last month, during which he accused Russian military leaders of lying about the war in Ukraine and nearly marched on Moscow before striking a deal negotiated by Belarusian president Alexandr Lukashenko to back down.
His troops were given the option to join him, convert to Russia's military, or just return to civilian life and avoid prosecution.
While Prigozhin's whereabouts haven't been clear since the June 24 mutiny — the Kremlin says he had an in-person meeting with Putin five days afterward and was reportedly traveling on a private jet to St. Petersburg in early July.
A photo released online this week suggested he had finally settled in the Belarus camp.