Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2023 1:28:19 GMT
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (*Hero of the Russian Federation [2022]) died in an aeroplane crash in Russia's Tver Oblast.
Prigozhin was until earlier this year one of the main faces of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In June 2023, he launched an armed rebellion against the government of Putin V. V., and claimed that the invasion of Ukraine was only launched so that S. K. Shoigu, the Russian Defence Minister, could gain glory and medals. After trying to march on Moscow - he had already, so to speak, crossed the Rubicon - he turned around and reached an "agreement" brokered by President of Belarus A. G. Lukashenko. Whilst Putin referred to Prigozhin and his followers as "traitors", an agreement was ostensibly reached that would preserve Prighozhin from criminal prosecution. He has been seen recently in Russia, Belarus, and Africa in recent weeks.
Putin, in an interview before the invasion was launched, said he would always forgive anybody, "except those who betray". It seems to me like Prigozhin probably was a dead man walking. I would have thought he would not have been naive enough to believe Putin's guarantees for his safety. I cannot believe he actually thought he could attempt a coup against Putin and then continue to strut around Russia with his private jet as though nothing had happened.
Prigozhin leaves a legacy that probably has not yet been entirely understood or worked out. He was clearly a horrible, nasty, atrocious man. In 1981, Soviet authorities sentenced twenty year old Prigozhin to 12 years imprisonment for his criminal activities. He was never much more than a criminal and racketeer.
Russian history shows that those who are ousted from leadership through a coup, and those who tried but failed to overthrow the establishment, usually end up killed in some way or another. Khrushchev seems about the only exception to that - although his name was literally expunged from Soviet history books and when he died in 1971, the official newspaper Pravda reported in small print "At age 77, the former First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and holder of a personal pension, N. S. Khrushchev, died." He, however, was lucky. Few others have been. Perhaps Malenkov, Stalin's initial successor and a typical Stalinist thug, was lucky too - when he died in 1988, 35 years after he was ousted by Khrushchev, he died quietly, a practising Orthodox Christian who had even entered the lower ranks of the clergy as a Reader.
Prigozhin was until earlier this year one of the main faces of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In June 2023, he launched an armed rebellion against the government of Putin V. V., and claimed that the invasion of Ukraine was only launched so that S. K. Shoigu, the Russian Defence Minister, could gain glory and medals. After trying to march on Moscow - he had already, so to speak, crossed the Rubicon - he turned around and reached an "agreement" brokered by President of Belarus A. G. Lukashenko. Whilst Putin referred to Prigozhin and his followers as "traitors", an agreement was ostensibly reached that would preserve Prighozhin from criminal prosecution. He has been seen recently in Russia, Belarus, and Africa in recent weeks.
Putin, in an interview before the invasion was launched, said he would always forgive anybody, "except those who betray". It seems to me like Prigozhin probably was a dead man walking. I would have thought he would not have been naive enough to believe Putin's guarantees for his safety. I cannot believe he actually thought he could attempt a coup against Putin and then continue to strut around Russia with his private jet as though nothing had happened.
Prigozhin leaves a legacy that probably has not yet been entirely understood or worked out. He was clearly a horrible, nasty, atrocious man. In 1981, Soviet authorities sentenced twenty year old Prigozhin to 12 years imprisonment for his criminal activities. He was never much more than a criminal and racketeer.
Russian history shows that those who are ousted from leadership through a coup, and those who tried but failed to overthrow the establishment, usually end up killed in some way or another. Khrushchev seems about the only exception to that - although his name was literally expunged from Soviet history books and when he died in 1971, the official newspaper Pravda reported in small print "At age 77, the former First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and holder of a personal pension, N. S. Khrushchev, died." He, however, was lucky. Few others have been. Perhaps Malenkov, Stalin's initial successor and a typical Stalinist thug, was lucky too - when he died in 1988, 35 years after he was ousted by Khrushchev, he died quietly, a practising Orthodox Christian who had even entered the lower ranks of the clergy as a Reader.