Prigozhin Reveals Tens of Thousands of Dead and Wounded on Both Sides in Aftermath of the Battle of Bakhmut

Another great info dump that we sorely needed.

Alright lets jump right in. Another long, tell-all interview with the head of Wagner.

As usual, I have watched it and provided bullet-points as I listened:

• Wagner fulfilled its assignment

• They need to retreat now to reform, resupply, reorganize

• 427 days of nonstop warfare has taken its toll, and this was done against all rules of military organization, where units are rotated out monthly

• By the 1st, Wagner will pull out and hand over their positions to MoD

• We are leaving because we won, not because we were beaten

• To prove this, we let in the media who checks every single basement looking for AFU, but find only corpses

• He is asked if the regular troops are capable of holding these positions to which he replies, “they have to be, because if they are not, conclusions have to be made. If Wagner cannot hand over these positions, then Wagner is more battle-capable than the Russian army, which cannot be the case. If this is the case and the military is not capable of holding these positions, then the leadership should shoot itself.”

• He is asked whether or not the goals of the SMO make any sense to which he replies that here he cannot speak plainly and openly and instead of telling the truth he is about to fib a bit. This is not because he fears the law but because he doesn’t want to contribute to the revolutionary atmosphere.

• The bureaucracy has to be reformed.

• Ukraine was allowed to fester since 1992 and be run by criminals (by Russia) and then in 2014, there was a military coup because the retarded degenerate Yanukovich was in charge. He only thought about how to steal more money for himself, which led to a fight within the ruling elite, which led to Euromaidan, pogroms on Russians, Crimea, and then, for 8 years, Russia stood around with its finger up its nose. Worse, Russia did nothing to help Donbass economically. Kurchenko, the thief, was sent in to continue robbing Donbass.

My article on Kurchenko and the looting of Donbass with Moscow’s approval:

• Lots of people in power in Moscow, including the Presidential Administration, were in debt to this oligarch [here he must mean that he provided them with the money loan to be able to buy their positions] so they handed over Donbass to Kurchenko, who proceeded to rob it blind.

• The average Donbassian suffered under his reign of terror.

• Zacharchenko was a man of the people, and for that they killed him. Who is they? Was it really Ukraine that killed him or was it someone else? [He means from Moscow] Big questions and someone has to answer for them.

• So, Donbass declined while Ukraine continued to prepare.

• Prigozhin says that he was almost arrested for his interest in Ukraine in 2019, but says that it is a story for another time. He understood that he was to stay out and away from Ukraine, but won’t say more about it at this point. [Your guess as good as mine.]

• We came, rudely, trampled all over the country, searching for Nazis, pissing everyone off, got to Kiev, shit our pants and then left. The same thing happened in Kherson, Izyum, Liman, and we keep shitting our pants.

• Stalin would have hanged people by now, but we refuse to learn our lessons

• The goals were de-militarization and de-nazication. But Ukraine is just a former Ukrainian republic. Prigozhin’s brother used to be a director of some uranium works in Ukraine. Utkin also went there. [Does he mean radiation therapy?] What really happened though? Russia decided to make Ukraine the cause celebre of the world and legitimized their country. The whole world now knows and supports their cause. This is “de-nazification” apparently.

• As for de-militarization, well the people of Belgorod know how well it is going.

• They had 500 tanks and now have 5000. If they had 20,000 men who knew how to fight, now they have 400k trained men. We have militarized them.

• Wagner knows how the Americans fight, the French, how the cowards in the UN fight, how African tribes fight. Wagner is clearly the best army in the world. We only retreated from countries when our allies crumbled and we had no choice.

• The UAF is in second place. They have great capabilities and know how to use all sorts of weapons systems. They don’t care about losses and only the end goal.

• No serious country allows their borders to be violated like Russia does in Belgorod. He brings up Turkey and Syria as examples of this.

Clearly, he is seeing the same things that I am seeing on my Rorschach test, but which other clown analysts don’t.

• Clearly, Moscow does not give a damn about the people of Belgorod. UAF ride in on tanks and APCs and only if they show up outside Moscow will the elite take notice.

• What about the children of the elite who show off their glitzy lifestyles during these difficult times? Prigozhin says that the kids of the elite are more spoiled than even the kids of Western kids. He then defends the story of Peskov’s son fighting in Wagner as an artilleryman for 6 months which he shared earlier. Prigozhin kept him off the frontlines so that he didn’t die. Peskov’s son is not popular in elite circles. The parents of these golden youth were very upset that I did this. Do not touch our kids! How dare you! Lavrov’s daughter lives in London! I told them, “have you no shame?” What about Shoigu? What about the shameful behavior of his son-in-law and his daughter? What are they spending these large amounts of money on? Are they using their own money? But no money for supplies! Talking about how they are against the SMO! We didn’t come up with this SMO. It was not our idea. But we have to see it through to the end. They have lost their goddamn mind. They go to UAE to shake their asses. The kids of the elite are beyond saving. Why they allow themselves to show this off publicly is beyond the pale. But not only the elite have children. Other people have children who see what they are doing. These other people lose their children and lay flowers at their graves. One of them said that Putin gives medals to generals, but refuses to give his son a medal and asks why. The reason why is because a clown is sitting in the Presidential Administration. He doesn’t want to do his job, but likes it when people beg him for his signature and debase themselves in front of him. Meanwhile, Shoigu’s little shits shake their asses in UAE. This will end with 1917. First, the soldiers will rise up and then their families will. There will be hundreds of thousands of them. I will follow the law, personally. But the peasants will kill them with pitchforks. I recommend the Russian elite to send their kids to war. Only when they die will the Russian people believe that justice has been done.

• How often are you called Putin’s man or Putin’s chef?

• I was a restauranter and I was the best at it. I don’t even know how to cook so this nickname is stupid, may as well have called me “Putin’s butcher”. I never knew Putin back in the day in Petersburg. I met him when he became the president. Those photos prove nothing, but are used to prove that Putin keeps bad company because I am a former criminal.

• You often critique the MoD, but what about their successes like Crimea?

• I closely followed the events surrounding Crimea. Who freed Crimea? Aksionov, the national militia, and a small part of FSB, and a special forces unit (the green men). Dyumin, Alexey Gennadievich led this unit. As for what Shoigu was doing during this time? Well, only he knows … [he means he had nothing to do with Crimea]. Also, it was made possible by Putin’s decision. Shoigu showed up to collect a medal, that much I know.

• Do you think the Russian army, that you are handing over the positions to, will they be able to advance?

• Prigozhin says that the problems started in 2012. But, actually, the problems started when the WWII commanders left the scene. It became a social club. The only serious conflict was Afghanistan. Far less soldiers died in Afghanistan than in the battle of Bakhmut. At least in the USSR, the technology continued to advance. The USSR valued its technical expertise and everyone wanted to be the next Gagarin or Kalashnikov. After the USSR, the money ended and Serdukov (former MoD minister) came along. He was a very uneducated man and did not value Russian weapons. Then Shoigu came next. Blind loyalty became the only criteria in the military and all thinking, independent people were taken out of their positions. Surovikin is a good general because he is willing to talk to his commanders and hear them out. Shoigu refuses to listen to anyone. I have talked to him a lot. All he does is humiliate others. He is a god and the rest are scum. This is the main source of the problem. The problem goes back to the 90s. In our army, there is a huge gap between soldiers and the command. ( … ) [Prigozhin repeats a lot of points he made in previous interview about logistics and supplies word for word.]

• Wagner is composed of disgruntled officers purged by Shoigu

• If we had the men and supplies that we needed back at the start of the SMO, we would have already taken Donbass

• At our zenith, we had 50k men, but 35k for most of our operations. Then, I got 50k prisoners, and 20% of them died. As many died with a contract (regulars). Then, 20% are seriously wounded. The AFU lost 50k men, 50-70k wounded. The had a hard time evacuating their wounded. Wagner lost 1/3 KIA less than the AFU. And 50% less wounded. [This means that he lost 20k men KIA.]

• And what about the ammo hunger?

• We will no longer have hunger now that we are pulling out. We will resupply. (…) I have my own satellite, tanks, artillery, aviation, intelligence. Wagner is its own army. There is a fear that we will march on Moscow with our own army. During wartime. Because of this, they try to force us to lick their asses (the higher-ups). We refuse to lick their asses.

• Will you continue to bring the issue of the artificial supply shortage on behalf of the dead who need not have died?

• Yes, we will demand that these people be punished. The bureaucrats in and around the military. And the principle offenders are Shoigu and Gerasimov. It was their decision. Putin confirmed this. But we will follow the law. The people will demand answers, mothers of the tens of thousands of our dead men. The deputies who want to congratulate us are actually pretending that we are part of the regular army and saying that the military deserves our honors. There are some good units that we worked with in the regular army, but not many. I believe that the death penalty for the traitors needs to be brought back and will be. I hope that the law will hang the responsible.

• What is the significance of the taking of the city?

• The longer we would have fought, the longer the meat-grinder would have continued. From October 8th we were told that the army was ready. [They weren’t] Surovikin was pressured to resign, but forced himself to not resign and try to save the army. Then we came up with our plan to kill as many of the enemy as possible. During this time, the idea was to prepare the Russian army while we fought in Bakhmut. Because before this, we were throwing our raw recruits to their deaths. We needed time to reorganize. Time will show if the military used this window. I do not know whether the army has been prepared. As for the consequences for all the losses that we took, well, 80% of our losses were thanks to our supply deficits. Several generations will suffer from the amount of men that we have lost.

• Prigozhin tells the story of a felon drug-offender who joined up with Wagner. He asked if his daughter would be informed if he died at the front before signing up. He ended up dying on the front. Prigozhin saw his torn-up body. The higher-ups like it that so many Russians are dying. Then, this man’s daughter committed suicide by jumping from the balcony 3 months later. While the elites’ kids party it up on social media, others kids jump to their deaths. Russians are a good and tolerant people, but the chickens will come home to roost eventually.

• So, honestly, what will happen after Wagner pulls out?

• We have no choice but to pull out. Our new recruits need more training, they are not the supermen I had before. Bakhmut may not be the worst battle ahead of us in the war. If the territories are surrendered, we will, following the rules, we will come to the bureaucrats and demand answers. Only after this can we then go back to the front. It is impossible to allow a situation where they eat their fancy cream soups and shower the people with snot while we go and die.

• What about the prisoners who will be released into the public?

• If they commit any serious offense, according to the rules of wartime, which we follow, we do not shoot anyone, we do not castrate anyone, but they will die in other ways. [Note: here he is cryptic and says that a repeat offender who served in Wagner may end up having a heart attack and the problem will be resolved in one way or another. No, I do not know what he means.] I promised the prisoners, that if they messed up again, we’d take them back again. Now though, the MoD is using these prisoners, and I feel bad for them, how they are treated. We treated them harshly, but fairly. We freed 40k prisoners. Only .03 percent repeat offenses from these former prisoners. We taught them well with a firm hand.

• The Russian Deep State consists of the left hand - the MoD and the right hand - the Presidential Administration. They do all they can to discredit us. No one is allowed to outshine them, which we do. The media ignores this and blows up stories with Wagner prisoners on purpose. But we maintain strict discipline within the organization. They come out rehabilitated and less aggressive after the war.

• As for Belgorod, they are lying that it was a small force. They will come again and the next time will go deeper. They are gathering information and learning. Wagner tries to train Belgorod militias and they tell us that the government steals their money, their supplies, doesn’t train them. We need a territorial guard (like in Ukraine) but the military won’t allow it. They could finance themselves. These locals would be proud to serve, but the MoD thinks that the ordinary people shouldn’t be allowed to think they can defend themselves. Only they can defend them. These clowns don’t care enough to defend these territories well. This is not a job for the border guard, but a complete failure of the MoD, who has failed in everything.

• Who should be put in charge of the MoD?

• It is unlikely that anything will change. Miznetsev I can vouch for. Surovikin is a strategic, deep thinker who has many successes under his belt. These two are my choices. The head shouldn’t be a politician, and shouldn’t be obsessed with self-glorification.

• What about the media coverage of Wagner?

• We are kept out of the media. The censorship is very strict. 80% of the population watches TV and the internet. I like that we are being censored. It shows the people that they are being lied to by the authorities. They can compare what the internet says, and what the TV says. No one is allowed to talk about Robin Hood, you see? When they finally start talking about Wagner, no one will trust the state media. When Soledar was taken, they lied and said that it was the army, to steal our glory. This will lead to a revolutionary situation. War requires social justice standards to be held up to prevent rising levels of disgust. We ought to give anti-medals to the bad officers and officials.

• Stupid “hurrah jingoism” only works for a while. These made-up hero stories about our fake victories hurt the cause. Because people are lulled into complacency with “hurrah patriotism”. Everything is going well, why worry? Consider the “Navalny Effect”. Whenever someone stole something, Navalny would raise a stink. And so, these corrupt officials would think twice before running with their stolen money. Now that he sits behind bars, and everyone thinks that all is going well, there are no controls on bad behavior.

• What about the champagne factory in Artemovsk?

• I will not steal the champagne, that is marauding. I will try to get it back to its owners. Private property is sacred to me. Either we compensate it or give it back somehow.

• Last points? A political credo?

• War is a pederast affair. We call them pidors and they call us pidors. [A joke]. As for my political credo: I love my country, listen to Putin, Shoigu ought to be turned into soap??? and that’s it.

• What comes next?

• Optimistic scenario: the West will get tired of this conflict. China will step in and force negotiations. We will keep what we took and let Kiev keep what they kept. Unlikely. Pessimistic scenario: Ukraine has rockets, new forces, command infrastructure, although Zaluzhny is probably dead. They will replace him with Syrsky. Regardless, unlike us, they do not castrate their own commanders. They will continue preparing their counter-offensives. Now they are getting more serious about Artemovsk. They will try to return the 2014 borders, attack Crimea, blow up the bridge. It will be very grim for us. We have to be prepared for a long hard war. We need to think about how to save Russia. Because we failed to exploit Bakhmut, we will need a new mobilization. We need to move to a war economy and stop spending our money on glass skyscrapers, I am sick of looking at Gazprom’s monstrosities. We need to stop wasting money on other things, building new roads, after we win, we can start building again, only after we stabilize the front, only then we can start thinking about other things.

• Prigozhin wanted to boost Russia’s prestige working in Africa and so lied over there that Russia had a serious army

• Russia needs to become a North Korea for a bit. Close the borders. Ban Lavrov from holding weddings in Georgia and the rest. Return the money from the West and sit tight.

• The interviewer shares an amusing anecdote: how can we (the Russian elite) nuke the West when we have our family living there? Washington? No our kids are there. Brussels? Our aunt. But Voronyzh? (Russian village) No one of us there, so let’s nuke this village instead! [The joke is that the Russian elite hate Russia and are traitors]

• We started this fight and now we need to deal with this without yelling about nukes. We need to win this war the way it is being fought now. Unlike the Chinese, we do not think ahead, and so we should not pretend that we think about the future now. We need to fix the present problems that we have in front of us.

And there you have it.

Any questions?

If Prigozhin is secretly friends with Shoigu and this is all a Putin judo flip to trick the West, then I deserve a medal for being the only guy who actually got their disinfo translated into English, no? I mean, what is the point of running a psy-op that no one hears about or would know of if it weren’t for a micro-blogger taking the time to get the information out there to his *squints* 6k readers (on a good day).

In lieu of a medal, feel free to sign up as a paid sub to my blog. Actually, I’ve been meaning to thank you guys for the support you already showed and this is as good a time and place as any to do so. So, it is with great pleasure that I now proclaim that the bag has finally been secured!

I now have 1k in monthly Substack money pledged from my readers!

Thank you for coming through. This proves that, albeit after some serious, unrelenting coercion, and after a significant lag period, there is indeed an audience for critical analyses and a patriotic perspective.

I realize that reading my pieces doesn’t give you a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling and the average person prefers to mindlessly fist pump and cheer “his” team on instead of worrying and asking questions. But, as Prigozhin himself said in this interview, this blind jingoism is actually counterproductive and there will be hell to pay for it in the future. All in all, this makes your support that much more significant. We’re working at a serious disadvantage against an already established mafia promoting a pre-determined narrative. As for the truth, well, no one really wants to hear it which is why they contort themselves into pretzels to either ignore it or pretend bad news is all just a clever “kayfabe” ploy. As you know, I blame Christian metaphysics for this state of affairs and the inability of the peasants to deal with bad news. The mental gymnastics on display have been astounding to witness over the last year, to say the least.

I think you will all agree with me though that no matter how unpopular the truth is, hear it the peasant internet children must, eventually. In fact, they will have it continually rammed down their throats and forced to choke it down so long as I’m around. And you can keep me around by either signing up to support my work or sharing it. Some of you have helped me reach out to other analysts and I am grateful for your help. You have made the blog and my own analyses that much better.

One of these days, I hope, we will abandon higher truths that require us to lie to ourselves and to others and content ourselves with the regular, unvarnished, harsh truth instead. It has a bitter taste at first, like all medicine does, but you will find yourselves stronger for having drunk deeply of it. Bottoms up!