Thread by @Geo_papic

One interesting takeaway from the attempted mutiny/coup is that Prigozhin kicked it off with a 30 minute speech on Telegram that has largely been translated to Western audience through second-hand reports. Here are some direct snippets from it that are interesting...

“Between 2014-2020 Donbas was looted by those close to the president, FSB, and oligarchs. These are people who stole from the people of Donbas. There was supposed to be local police/army presence to defend the population in case on a Ukrainian attack."

"On February 24, nothing out of the ordinary was happening. The Ministry of Defense (MoD) is trying to lie to the administration and population that there was excessive aggression from Ukraine’s side and that they were trying to attack Russia with the entire NATO."

"February 24, 2022... the whole operation was kept a secret. The commanders who were supposed to lead had no idea what was going on. Victory maps with prettily drawn arrows were brought to Shoigu by those who have never held a weapon. And so, what happened happened."

"Now, why did the “special operation” begin? Pretty concepts like de-Nazification and de-militarization of Ukraine would have been possible if, in three days, there was a regime change."

"As far as I know, Zelensky was open to anything when he became president. All we had to do was get down from our high horse and go make a deal. The entire Western Ukraine is populated by genetically Russian people. What is happening now is that we are just killing Russians."

"A bunch of idiots thought that nobody would realize what they were up to with their military training exercises right before their stupidly planned operation, and they stupidly thought that no one would stop them when they marched on Kyiv."

"And no one would have stopped them if these degenerates wouldn’t have made long columns and didn’t send naked and barefoot soldiers to Kyiv and other regions."

"Already in late Feb, soldiers were suffering shameful and embarrassing defeats. They were not only losing their lives, but also their reputation. African leaders (where I was stationed at the time) were contacting me and asking how Russia could have fallen to such shame."

"Why was the war needed? It was needed to that a bunch of _____ [bad word]at the top could show their might and get some good PR."

Here he goes into a diatrabe against Minister Shoigu that I do not think adds any value so I truncate it.

"Second, the war was needed for the oligarchs. It was needed for the clan that today pretty much rules Russia. This oligarch clan receives everything it possibly can."

He then goes into some "insider baseball" on Ukrainian politics that I truncate.

"When we captured factories, why didn’t we start working in them? Instead, all the machinery gets disassembled and taken to Russia. We captured a liquor factory in TK oblast (in Donbas), and already it’s being decided when it should launch. But who will profit from it?"

"Definitely not the people of Donbas. All the revenues will be robbed and looted again. Our war with those who oppress Russians has turned into looting and stealing. Looting and stealing elevated to the levels of national ideology."

"On March 19 I arrived in Ukraine. I asked the local military leaders why we don’t report the number of injured and killed. I was told that this doesn’t interest anyone up the chain. There are certain goals that must be met. And the number of dead will be counted later."

"They still hope that they can win this war. But because there is no military leadership, the MoD lies to the President, and the President receives reports that to not match reality. Two notices are written – one on the ground and one at the president’s desk."

"That’s why we always head about 60 destroyed Leopards and 3000 destroyed troops. What is reported in the socials and news is the one case of us destroying 2 Leopards and a few other things. Noone has ever destroyed 60 Leopards. This is complete BS."

I have truncated the entire speech as there is some Russian-Ukrainian "insider baseball" stuff here that I don't think is that valuable.

Why spend any time on this when the coup failed and the man is exiled?

For one, Prigozhin has a stellar reputation as a "hard man" and a soldier. Nobody is going to successfully accuse him of being a liberal, Western, patsy. So the fact that he has unloaded such a littany of criticisms against Russian leadership is relevant.

Moments like this can change the narrative. Prigozhin is arguing that the war in Ukraine has nothing to do with Russia's national security, geopolitical ambitions, protecting Russian speakers/ethnics, or natural resources. It's all about domestic politics. I very much agree!

What's kind of ironic is that both Kremlin apologists and Ukrainian/Liberal/Western critics kind of agree that Russia has STRATEGIC reasons to invade Ukraine. I really disagree. I agree with Prigozhin. He is right. This was domestic PR.

The fact that somebody of his stature and reputation has openly made these claims is, I think, very relevant. Especially as many of his detractors are either professional soldiers who will stay quiet on politics (and will challange him on legality of action) or political hacks.

In other words, someone like Prigozhin can "open a safe space" for others to criticize the war in a similar manner. No longer are Kremlin critics merely liberals and Western stooges. They now include a merciless mercinary who has a stellar reputation as a Russian patriot.