Even in Russia, where the line between fact and fiction is often impossibly blurred, the life and death of Yevgeny Prigozhin is a fantastic tale. Two months ago, having been pilloried as a traitor who had threatened to bring down Vladimir Putin and execute a host of senior military leaders, Prigozhin seemed to have gotten away with his coup-that-wasn’t when he returned to Russia and retained control of his Wagner mercenary group.
The former warlord’s stunning death in a plane crash in Tver Province seems — or so the story spreading on social media and in the Western press goes — to have confirmed the fate that awaits challengers to Putin’s iron rule: a spectacular execution ordered by a mafia-like leader. The traitor lies dead, an example to all. But could there be one last twist in the story of Yevgeny Prigozhin?
The circumstances of Prigozhin’s death remain clouded in the fog of Russia’s unreliable information sphere. Various explanations have, aided by Russian propagandists and astroturfed groups, torn through social media networks like Telegram and VK (Russia’s equivalent of Facebook). A bomb on board the plane may have exploded mid-flight. The plane was sabotaged on the ground by buyers invited to view the vehicle, which was purportedly for sale. An air defence missile struck and destroyed the plane. Or perhaps, one story goes, it was all a terrible coincidence. And who did it? Perhaps the order came from Putin directly. Or it was Ukrainian saboteurs, the FSB, or rogue army units.
Neither we nor the Russian public will know what really happened any time soon, even if Western intelligence agencies currently favour the bomb story. Such is the nature of Russia’s media. The aim of propagating material is not the dissemination or discovery of the truth, but the creation of a malleable reality where anything can become possible — and where the life of Prigozhin can be rewritten into the state’s chosen narrative. The reality of Prigozhin’s life was already deeply contradictory before his death. Within the last six months alone, he has been a deliberately sadistic warlord — the public embodiment of ultranationalist, genocidal violence; a would-be revolutionary persona non grata; and, mere days before his death, a willing instrument of Russian state power in Africa.
Many of these shifting and contradictory stories were shaped by the vociferous Prigozhin himself, who masterfully used the megaphone that networks such as Telegram provide wannabe powermongers to draw attention to himself and recreate his own image over and again. Nobody in Russia has so successfully created alternatives to the state’s media — even if Prigozhin frequently adopted the same narrative flexibility as the Kremlin. Now that Prigozhin is dead, however, the state can leap into this space and recreate the life of the dead man on Putin’s terms alone.
Western media and audiences have voraciously consumed stories about Prigozhin’s demise: the front pages of publications on both sides of the Atlantic are packed with obituaries and speculation. Yet Russia’s news media — not usually known for its reticence to cast judgement — has thus far been surprisingly quiet on the topic. Reports on the circumstances of Prigozhin’s death have been bland, describing, for example, a “plane crash in which eleven people died” with only a brief mention of the man himself. The Kremlin has issued rote denials of Western claims about Prigozhin’s death and claimed that crash experts are busy analysing the events that took place above Tver (although, on past evidence, their analyses are likely to be misleading).
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Subscribe“Even in Russia, where the line between fact and fiction is often impossibly blurred”
If Russians are aware that they’re constantly being lied to, they’re ahead of us.
There’s a big difference between political spin and biased news media in the West, and state controlled propaganda in Russia. A big difference!
The Russian word for this is vranyo, which might be translated as: “When I lie to you, you know I am lying to you, I know you know I am lying, and I still lie to you.” Ben MacIntyre
There’s a big difference between political spin and biased news media in the West, and state controlled propaganda in Russia. A big difference!
The Russian word for this is vranyo, which might be translated as: “When I lie to you, you know I am lying to you, I know you know I am lying, and I still lie to you.” Ben MacIntyre
“Even in Russia, where the line between fact and fiction is often impossibly blurred”
If Russians are aware that they’re constantly being lied to, they’re ahead of us.
Is he really dead? Or is this some giant spoof?
Of course he is. He’s been a dead man walking since the failed coup.
Of course he is. He’s been a dead man walking since the failed coup.
Is he really dead? Or is this some giant spoof?
And yet it’s been announced Prigozhin won’t be getting a state funeral, and Putin won’t be attending.
And yet it’s been announced Prigozhin won’t be getting a state funeral, and Putin won’t be attending.
Effectively he waged the entire war, 2014 until recently, installing a mercenary force to take on the nationalist militias in the Donbas.
I wonder if he’s been polished off because the word down the wire is that Nuland and Blinken want to retreat back to the Minsk Accords in time for Elections 2024?
Effectively he waged the entire war, 2014 until recently, installing a mercenary force to take on the nationalist militias in the Donbas.
I wonder if he’s been polished off because the word down the wire is that Nuland and Blinken want to retreat back to the Minsk Accords in time for Elections 2024?
Only caveat is that the one group that fully supports the war, centered around the War Bloggers, probably won’t be fooled by any propaganda about Prigozhin.
They know he was the last effective fighter the Russians had. And after the Ukrainians take Tokmak, and then Melitopol, it will be much harder to conceal Putin’s massive defeat in this war.
Propaganda can only go so far.
“Pravda, Russia’s newspaper of record” – WAT?! What century are you living in? 😉 Stopped reading there.
“Pravda, Russia’s newspaper of record” – WAT?! What century are you living in? 😉 Stopped reading there.