Wagner Boss Rails Against Russian Officials After Moscow Drone Attack

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, sharply criticized Russian military officials following Tuesday's drone attack on Moscow.

The mercenary organization's founder took to Telegram following the assault, where he offered a sharp rebuke of senior military officials living in Rublyovka—an elite suburb of Moscow—asking why they were "allowing these drones to fly to Moscow?"

According to Russian authorities, Moscow was hit with drone strikes at around 4 a.m. local time. Local Telegram channels reported that around 30 drones participated in the attacks, 10 of which were destroyed. While some damage to residential buildings was reported, no casualties have been so far. Since it's been more than a year since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin-backed news agency Tass wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Kyiv for the attack, but Mikhailo Podolyak—a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—denied his country's involvement.

"What should ordinary people do when drones with explosives crash into their windows?" Prigozhin said in an expletive-filled rant, according to a translation by Reuters. "So as a citizen, I am deeply outraged that these scum sit quietly...And that's why I think the people have every right to ask them these questions, these bastards."

He continued, "But I have already warned about this many times, but no one wants to listen. Because I'm angry and I upset bureaucrats who have a great life."

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, shared translated audio of Prigozhin's comments on Twitter that included additional remarks.

"You're the Ministry of Defense. You haven't done anything to advance," Prigozhin said, according to Gerashchenko. "If they fly to your house in Rublyovka...let your houses burn!"

Prigozhin has frequently expressed his frustrations with Russia's top military officials, especially Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. He became even more vocal with his complaints after his Wagner troops became a major force in Russia's war against Ukraine following Putin's formal military suffering multiple battlefield defeats.

Before Wagner became heavily involved in the highly-contested battle for Bakhmut, Prigozhin claimed a major victory in Soledar, but he later became angry after the Kremlin didn't properly credit his men for taking the Ukrainian city.

Earlier this year, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Prigozhin's public outbursts about Russian officials on social media had created a rift with Putin, who was once said to be supportive of Prigozhin.

More recently, Prigozhin participated in a 77-minute interview last week that generated international headlines. During his talk with blogger Konstantin Dolgov, Prigozhin said Moscow's plans to "demilitarize" Ukraine had not only failed but Russia had "turned Ukraine's army into one of the most powerful in the world."

When asked why Prigozhin gets away with such harsh critiques of Russian officials when other people seemingly do not, Dr. Mark Galeotti—a London-based political scientist and author of the 2022 book Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine—told Newsweek there are two possible reasons.

"One is that he brings a mercenary army to the table, and therefore he still has value to the Kremlin. Secondly, these days Putin is much less visible. A central element of his job is resolving intra-elite disputes when they begin to become disruptive and dangerous to the state," Galeotti said. "Even before the invasion [of Ukraine], he actually has been much less evident in this role, and it's certainly contributes to a general sense within the elite that the old man is maybe no longer quite up to the job."

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment.