๐งต Unless otherwise noted or in (), all information is from Vladimir Osechkin, recipient of the #FSBletters from the #WindofChange inside the FSB.
Osechkin: RosGvardia (Russia's National Guard, reports to Putin, not the MoD) will be urgently issued heavy armament and tanks.
Osechkin: RosGvardia (Russia's National Guard, reports to Putin, not the MoD) will be urgently issued heavy armament and tanks.
My note: Roman Gavrilov was Putin's personal bodyguard in the FSO (Federal Protective Service), was in charge of "cleansings" in the FSB on Putin's behalf, and was Deputy Commander of RosGvardia before becoming top commander in Wagner PMC under Prigozhin.
Osechkin: Putin's close deputy and trusted persona, General Roman Govrilov switched to Wagner PMC and fortified Yevgeny Prigozhin's position in spring 2023.
So now, the same security organs such as RosGvardia who helped expand Prigozhin's influence and supported his schemes are going to be equipped with heavy armor.
There were developments behind the scenes that forced the FSB to drop the investigation of Wagner's armed rebellion. This decision is both temporary and forced. Wagner mercenaries are now in the process of being disarmed, especially heavy armament and tanks.
It would be interesting if the developments followed some Hollywood script, but in reality, when the armed rebellion began, it was very dangerous. Truly frightened, Putin recorded the video address on the night of the 23rd.
Putin found himself in a position of not knowing the extent to which he was surrounded by traitors at the highest levels. He needed to do anything to prevent Wagner from reaching Moscow.
Regardless, he exposed himself as a political impotent to the whole world. The situation was hopeless. There was a significant risk that Wagner could capture the FSB headquarters and the Kremlin in Moscow.
If Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries were ready to die for their coup, they would have succeeded. But in reality, from his youth and subsequent time in prison, Prigozhin was an informant and cooperated with Russian security services. (Meaning he doesn't have principles)
Prigozhin then worked for his FSB handlers in Saint Petersburg, setting up shell companies, and on behalf of senior comrades was sent to Moscow. Subsequently he was installed as an overseer of the so-called Wagner PMC, a terrorist organization, in 2012 or 2013.
Prigozhin never fought himself. He is no Utkin, he is no Kuznetsov. Prigozhin is a merchant. He never shot anyone, specifically in the course of battle. He was not ready to go to the bitter end.
Prigozhin planned and intended to negotiate. They hoped that Putin would flinch and issue a decision on removing Shoigu and Gerasimov, which will make them victors in the eyes of the power-bloc, install their own people in these positions, and so on.
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Prigozhin also placed his bet on a siege. Let's look at what he did over the last 6 months: He rehabilitated his relationship with Dmitry Peskov, Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration, Putin's press secretary, who speaks with Putin daily.
As Prigozhin right-hand, Roman Gavrilov appeared, who was in the FSO before going to Rosgvardia into one of the top positions, who then went to Prigozhin and began to support Wagner PMC. Prigozhin understood Gavrilov was one of the key people in all of Russia.
Previously, Prigozhin was receiving billions in financial support through Gavrilov in his post at RosGvardia, which was approved by Putin. This money went to pay for mercenary salaries and acquisition of military armament for Wagner PMC.
In addition, Prigozhin also has several Generals in his pocket, such as General Mizintsev who left his post as Deputy Defence Minister of Russia and moved to Wagner PMC.
At a certain point, Prigozhin truly believed that he was all-powerful and that he has wide support in the Russian power-bloc. But then at a certain moment after the coup began, those people who he strongly counted on -
from one side that a row of Generals will support him in Moscow, and from another side - he went all over Russia with his politologists to various Russian regions, they set up car rallies (in support of Wagner), handed out their flags,
they counted on the population who had supported him on Telegram channels and signed up to his mailings lists in the regions to start their own march on Moscow.
But there were practically no such civilian columns of his supporters going to Moscow from the regions, largely due to the inherent Russian psyche - "wherever you're born, that's where you stay."
Only a naive person would've believed that regular people would really participate in this. So, there was no wide popular support of this movement.
At the same time, some key people that Prigozhin counted on inside the power-bloc turned out to be unavailable, refusing to pick up his phone calls. Some of them clearly passed on the information to the FSB and the FSO.
Over that one day (of the coup), strong operational counteraction ensued, with over 100 raids. They went to Wagner members' family homes and informed them that everyone will be arrested if this continues, resulting in demoralization.
They also raided all of Prigozhin's homes and places of business, including Wagner's security service offices. The FSB publicly released just some of what they seized - billions of rubles, over $10 million in cash, more than 10kg in gold, forged passports, weapons arsenal, etc.
The FSB did not publicly release what they found at the Wagner PMC's own security service offices in Saint Petersburg. There, they found a significant amount of evidence that large numbers of active members of the FSB, Interior Ministry,
and even FSIN (prison system) were in direct & unauthorized contact with Yevgeny Prigozhin, his deputy commander of Wagner security services Subbotin, and several others in Prigozhin's circle.
Empire that Prigozhin had been building over the last 10 years became paralyzed. Prigozhin's personal traits caused him to cower, fearing that if he continues then he will lose his assets inside Russia, and he understood that he did not have wide popular support.
As a result we now understand that they were not ready to back up their own words and declarations (of going on Moscow), which did indeed horribly terrify Vladimir Putin himself (because they could have succeeded if they had conviction).
My note: Intermission. ๐ต Will continue translation at another time. In the meantime, I highly recommend you watch the below translated interview if you have not had a chance yet. Very important to understanding all of this.
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