Russia Analyst Alex Mercouris described Yevgeny Prigozhin’s activities in the days leading up to his death. Prigozhin was in Africa and met with the President of the Central African Republic, where he gave assurances that despite the attempted coup, they were in good standing in Russia and the Wagner organization would continue to provide the government of Central Africa with the security assistance that it needed.
Prigozhin then met with the Sudanese militia that was fighting the Sudanese government. Apparently, the Wagner has provided some assistance to the Sudanese militia. The militia paid for this assistance in gold.
The now-deceased Wagner Chief traveled to Mali, where he met with the authorities who relied on Wagner to give the military assistance.
During this tour, he put on his helmet and flak jacket and gave his brief speech. In the clip, he said Wagner was back in Russia, and expanding their help.
Video filmed today, August 21, in Africa:
Then he returned to Russia and the plane crash.
It looked like Prigozhin was trying to live up to his part of the bargain and be a team player, says Mercouris.
If Putin wanted Prigozhin gone, it would have been better just to bring corruption charges.
Alex Mercouris then reported the entire speech by President Putin. He said that a source of his who knows someone in Wagner said that Putin is taking a serious interest in the case. One of the people on the plane was an intelligence officer currently serving. Putin wants all information about the probe to go to him first.
Mercouris analyzed Putin’s speech at the end of the clip, and came to the conclusion that they didn’t expect this attack and it’s more of an embarrassment.
Western media, he says, is picking up on alleged threats from Wagner but he suspects they’re looking at Telegram channels that have no connection to Wagner.
Go to about 44:15:
Who knows?
Your timestamp on the last video should be 44:15.