‘He didn’t plan to overthrow Putin’ Two years after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death, his mother says in a new interview that she warned him against marching on Moscow
Two years ago tomorrow, on August 23, 2023, a private plane crashed outside Moscow, killing three crew members and seven passengers, including Wagner Group private military company founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. Two months prior, Prigozhin had led a brief mutiny against Russia’s military that captivated the world and culminated in an aborted march on Moscow itself. Ahead of the anniversary of Prigozhin’s death — which U.S. intelligence reportedly assessed as a deliberate assassination — the St. Petersburg news outlet Fontanka interviewed the late mercenary leader’s mother, Violetta Prigozhina. She recently organized a gallery exhibition in honor of her son.
Fontanka journalist Ksenia Klochkova’s conversation with Prigozhin’s mother spans key periods of her son’s life, including the family’s humble living conditions during his childhood, Yevgeny’s decade-long imprisonment in the 1980s, and his entrepreneurial ventures after the fall of communism. The interview is particularly noteworthy for Violetta Prigozhina’s remarks about her son’s June 2023 armed rebellion. Meduza translated these portions of the exchange into English.
The march on Moscow
Because everything he talked about, everything that is coming out now… Take Kursk, for example — [remember] how often he said there needed to be fortifications there. It all really worried him. When we saw each other before the march [on Moscow] — which, of course, was not a rebellion — I told him: “Zhenya, people will only support you online. No one will stand with you. The [Russian] people aren’t like that anymore. No one will take to the streets.”
He answered, “No, they will support me.” Well, that’s what those around him were telling him, the ones who had been running the supposed numbers on support percentages and whatever. He didn’t have anyone with real wisdom at his side. But things happened like I said they would. Although in Rostov, they did welcome him with open arms. But he couldn’t go any further, because he couldn’t bring himself to fire on young cadets. […] I think the whole thing was spontaneous. But the plan was to talk, because no matter how much he said, nobody listened to him. Even now, soldiers still come to me, saying how desperate their situation was.
Downed aircraft and respect for Putin
That was all an accident — a provocation that had nothing to do with him. In the end, he just turned back and called it off. He definitely wasn’t planning to overthrow Putin — that much is absolutely clear. He just wanted to get through to the military leadership.
[…] Both Zhenya and I have nothing but respect for Mr. Putin. He literally saved me. If it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t be alive today. I was in really bad shape and needed surgery, and our doctors said there was nothing they could do. I already had one foot in the grave. Then Zhenya called Mr. Putin, and his response was: “A mother is sacred.” They sent a helicopter, and I was rushed to Hamburg.
Did he ever explain the mutiny afterward?
No, it had become hard to talk to him. He only said that he couldn’t fire on young men. I think there were a lot of things he just didn’t want to say. When I last saw him on August 15, it seemed as though he felt doomed. And on the 23rd, he was gone.
Why did Prigozhin’s private jet crash on August 23, 2023?
No one knows. [Yevgeny’s son] Pavel has asked many times about the investigation. They tell him: It’s ongoing. We bought the crash site property in the Tver region, and now we’re putting in a monument there.
On rumors that Prigozhin faked his own death
We’d be thrilled if that were true. But sadly... They took DNA from [his son] Pasha... When everything happened, I didn’t want to live. But I came to understand that if God is allowing me to continue living, then perhaps I should.
What was the march meant to accomplish?
I really don’t want to get into politics — that’s not my thing. But I think he had the best intentions. He figured he’d go straight to President Putin and lay out what was really happening at the front. I mean, we’re still out there collecting supplies for the troops. That’s the truth he was trying to get across.
Cover photo: Yevgeny Prigozhin in Rostov during the Wagner Group mutiny. June 23, 2023. / Kepka Prigozhina / Telegram