Very quickly on the heels of Wagner Group standing down after its short-lived mutiny and “march” on Moscow, during which time the mercenary convoys made it halfway up the M-4 highway, there emerged rumors that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had been placed under house arrest, under investigation for corruption and poor decision-making related to the Ukraine operation. These rumors were primarily perpetuated via Western social media accounts.
For example, a popular ‘open source’ analysis account, “OSINTdefender” said the following late Sunday: “Russian Sources are stating that Russian Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu is currently under a form of ‘House Arrest’ by the FSB pending an Investigation into his Leadership within the MoD and the Theft of Military Funding.” But this appears false, with RIA and other state media sources releasing video Monday showing him visiting troops inside the “SMO” – or special military operation zone inside Ukraine…
First sighting of Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu after he went dark for days during Yevgeny Prigozhin’s uprising against him. He’s supposedly visiting a command post for the war in Ukraine, though it’s not clear when or where this was filmed pic.twitter.com/vUQZc9GpIN
— max seddon (@maxseddon) June 26, 2023
Presumably the visit occurred somewhere in the Donetsk People’s Republic or Luhansk People’s Republic, but the date cannot be confirmed.
The FT’s Max Seddon in follow-up commented on the video as follows: “Rybar, a popular pro-war blog, says Shoigu visited Belgorod region before Prigozhin’s uprising and this is likely from that trip. Whether or not that’s true, it’s still significant they put it out – it shows Shoigu (apparently) still has Putin’s backing.”
Likely the Kremlin is intentionally combatting the rumors of Shoigu’s supposed detention by the FSB, also given part of the purpose of Prigozhin’s treasonous acts (as Putin dubbed them) was to highlight corruption and dereliction of duty among the top command ranks all the way up to Russia’s defense chief.
Rumors have also been circulating that Shoigu was “fired” – with the UK TImes also going so far as to claim that President Putin is in “hiding” after the Wagner rebellion, in a Monday article…
Putin and his defence chiefs vanish after failed Wagner rebellion https://t.co/9R0lF8wTTZ via @thetimes
— Nino Brodin (@Orgetorix) June 26, 2023
Meanwhile Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has announced that the criminal investigation into Prigozhin, who was essentially exiled to Belarus, has not been dropped.
“The criminal case against Prigozhin has not been closed. The investigation is continuing,” a source told TASS. Per the report, “On Saturday, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said that, on June 23, FSB investigators opened a criminal case against Yevgeny Prigozhin under Article 279 of the Russian Criminal Code for organizing an armed mutiny.”
Regarding the fate of Prigozhin and his fighters, more rumors abound…
BREAKING: Russian independent media outlet Verstka reports that a camp will be built in the Mogilev region of Belarus to accommodate Wagner PMC fighters
Versta reports that the camp will have the capacity to house 8,000 Wagner fighters.https://t.co/Lc2952saF4 pic.twitter.com/XjyzDEnS0d
— Faytuks News Δ (@Faytuks) June 26, 2023
Tyler Durden
Mon, 06/26/2023 – 10:05
