The mother of the commander of “Wagner“ Yevgeny Prigozhin gave an interview for the first time after his death, in which she personally thanked Vladimir Putin.
Violeta Prigozhin told The Times that her son, who organized a rebellion in Russia in 2023, did not want to overthrow Putin, but only to reach the military leadership. She claims that she tried to dissuade him.
On June 23, 2023, the Russian private military company “Wagner“ entered into an armed conflict with the Russian army after growing tensions between its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Russian Ministry of Defense. Prigozhin announced that he was heading towards Moscow, but ultimately stopped the coup. Soon after, Prigozhin died in a plane crash, probably caused by the authorities on Putin's orders.
“Zhenya, only people on the Internet will support you. No one will go with you. People are not like that anymore. No one will go to the square“, Violeta warned her son before the coup.
Prigogina stressed that her son did not seek to eliminate the Russian president: “He certainly did not intend to overthrow Putin. He wanted to get to the military leadership.“
At the same time, she thanked Putin, who, according to her, once personally saved her life by ordering doctors to perform an operation: “He replied: “Mother is sacred.“ They sent a helicopter and rushed me to Hamburg.“
Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as “Putin's cook“, became a key figure in the war against Ukraine, recruiting fighters from prisons and leading “Wagner“ operations, including during the Battle of Bakhmut.
But after the uprising, his situation changed dramatically. “When I last saw him on August 15, he looked doomed. And on the 23rd, he was gone,“ his mother said. Prigozhin's private plane crashed exactly two months after the uprising. He was 62 years old. The cause of the crash has not been officially announced.
“No one knows why the plane crashed, we are only told that the investigation is ongoing. It is absolutely certain that he did not want to be president. "He was deeply concerned about Russia, he wanted the country to be great," the mother said.