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Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner personal navy group, has denied attempting to overthrow the Russian authorities when his forces marched on Moscow over the weekend.
In an 11-minute voice recording posted on Telegram on Monday, Prigozhin mentioned he had as a substitute meant to sign his objection to a current determination to disband the militia in addition to reveal the weak spot of Russia’s home defences.
“We didn’t have the aim of toppling the prevailing regime, which is lawfully elected, as we now have mentioned many occasions,” mentioned Prigozhin, who didn’t consult with President Vladimir Putin by identify.
“Our determination to show round got here from two necessary elements,” he added. “The primary was that we didn’t wish to spill Russian blood. The second, we had been marching to reveal our protest, to not unseat the federal government.”
“The aim was to forestall the destruction of the Wagner [private military company] and to carry to account those that, with their unprofessional actions, made an enormous quantity of errors through the particular navy operation,” Prigozhin mentioned, utilizing the official Russian euphemism for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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