How Russia is being patched up after Prigozhin’s revolt. Overview of the Russian media space in July 2023. Part 1

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The Wagnerians’ mutiny lasted less than a day, but it caused significant damage to the "world picture" that the Kremlin so persistently created and promoted to the masses. We will remind you that thanks to his authority and with the help of a controlled media holding, Yevgeny Prigozhin destroyed the "truth about the war" monopoly. Russians have been hearing from him for a month before the mutiny about the incredible losses and incompetence of Russia's military and political leadership and the senselessness of the entire special military operation (SMO). Meanwhile, the "March of Justice" might have pushed the indifferent people to learn more about the reasons for the Wagnerian revolt.

Therefore, after June 24, the Kremlin had to perform several tasks at once to fix and compensate for the reputational damage caused by Prigozhin.

First, a campaign to glorify Putin's "act of bravery" and slander Prigozhin, who led ordinary Wagnerians, "heroic patriots of Russia" astray — began almost immediately. A separate important section of this campaign is the denial of purges among the Russian generals.

Secondly, it was necessary to restore trust in the official sources of Russia’s Ministry of Defense and the network of "military leaders", who denied and downplayed the scale of the issues at the front.

Thirdly, restoring the picture of a "successful and comprehensive" SMO was critically damaged by Prigozhin's front-line revelations was necessary.

Propagandists had to change the "general line" in these areas repeatedly. But we will devote the first part of the July review to considering the most critical task of Russian propaganda — denying the problems and reasons that led to the mutiny and "burying" all figures who were alternative sources of reliable information about the war to the Kremlin.

At first, Yevgeny Prigozhin was accused of profiting from state funds and simply wanting to protect his excess profits.

Prigozhin was also branded as a selfish, lowly criminal scum who was not punished for not pushing the deceived Wagnerians into slaughter against the security forces. At the same time, the thesis that "no one would capture Moscow anyway" is being advanced. In this sense, the text published by "RT in Russian" on July 6 is indicative. We will cite only the most eloquent theses:

July 6, 2023, RT in Russian:

The reasons for the mutiny were actively falsified. According to Prigozhin, Shoigu, generals, and the "fratricidal, inept SMO" were to blame for all the trouble, then the Kremlin court experts reduced everything to the Wagnerians disobedience to the Ministry of Defense.

July 1, 2023, Tsargrad TV:

"A fatal mistake was made, which provoked the Wagner rebellion in many ways. Yevgeny Prigozhin and his fighters’ rebellion was a question of time. Andrey Shkolnikov and Dmitry Drozdenko assessed the results and consequences of what happened live...

Drozdenko also emphasized that the fatal mistake, which in many ways provoked the riot, was that Russia allowed the creation of a second army, which was not even controlled by the state from a legal point of view.

Private military companies are normal, they exist in many countries, but in our country, they operate illegally de jure. There was neither a PMC law nor a direct system of subordination to the national Ministry of Defense.

The expert added that the Wagnerians, in addition, did not take an oath, and this is the most critical oath for any military representative, which is a very significant element of military education:

It turned out that the space for this was empty. But in the ranks of Wagner PMC, this void was quickly filled. They have their code, understanding of things, symbolism, PR, and internal relations, even if they are still unconstitutional and often very wrong, both within the group and in interaction with the personnel service officers. It also played a significant role in the rebellion."

At the same time, active work has begun to distinguish between the Wagner group and Prigozhin’s figure. This information work on the Wagner rehabilitation is supported at the highest level. On July 10, the Kremlin "recognized the meeting" of the Wagner commanders with Putin in the Kremlin, which allegedly took place on June 29.

On July 14, Putin set the Wagnerians’ fate straight:

"The fact of Vladimir Putin with the commanders of Wagner PMC’s meeting, including Yevgeny Prigozhin, became known only ten days after the rebellion. However, the head of state decided to comment on the event in the Kremlin in an interview with the Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov almost three weeks later.

Wagner soldiers fought with dignity. The fact that they were involved in these events (a riot organized on June 24) is regrettable, Vladimir Putin said.

The president specified that the meeting was multifaceted, and several topics were raised simultaneously. First, Vladimir Putin assessed the soldiers’ actions on the battlefield. Secondly, the head of state commented on the mutiny of Wagner PMC, and thirdly, he offered further options for completing their service.

They [Wagner soldiers] could all gather in one place and continue to serve. Nothing would change for them, Vladimir Putin emphasized.

The soldiers were offered to get a job under the leadership of their commander with the call sign — Sedo, and everyone nodded while listening to this fact. However, according to Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin answered that the military does not agree with such a decision.

Therefore, Putin's propaganda purposefully silences Prigozhin's criticism of the special military operation and the motives for starting a war against Ukraine. Instead, the idea is being spread that Wagnerians are Putin's loyal soldiers and executors of the orders of the Russian state.

The topic of criticism of the goals and methods of the war against Ukraine after July 14 becomes a complete taboo!

Furthermore, the idea that the Wagner group does not exist is planted. Only militants have either agreed to join the Russian army or are in the territory of Belarus in an unclear status.

Thus, the Kremlin propagandists introduce a ban on mentioning the Wagner group. From now on, all media are allowed to talk only about individual militants and the leading role of the Russian authorities and special services in the organization and activities of the "non-existent" Wagner group.

During July, Russian propaganda began to actively use and hyperbolize the careful assessments of Western intelligence and analytical centers to present the Wagnerian withdrawal from the front to Belarus as a "military ruse" and "a successful strategic decision of the Kremlin." The assumptions of foreigners are quoted and framed as "facts". And Russian "military experts" are fueling fears about the goals of placing thousands of Wagnerians in Belarus:

In the second half of July, the "heavy artillery" of Russian disinformation was added to the threat posed by Wagner to Poland and Lithuania: the self-proclaimed president of Belarus Lukashenko is doing the Kremlin a favor. Dark hints of Russian propagandists like Sergey Markov accompany all this.

In general, the Russian disinformation about the Wagnerians’ fate in Belarus is designed to influence an external audience, not its citizens. Replication of news and pseudo-expert comments about the "training camps", the "Suwalki corridor", and the "walk to Rzeszów" should divert attention from internal Russian problems and use the Wagnerians case from a demonstration of Putin's weakness of being a "threat" for NATO.

At the same time as conducting a disinformation campaign about the causes and consequences of the transfer of the rebellious Wagnerians to Belarus, the Russian media made significant efforts to create an information blockade around the topic of repression against Russian generals.

From the beginning of July, any information about the detention of generals for sympathizing with the Wagner rebellion was branded as "enemy fakes" and "unverified rumors." To confuse the Russian audience reports about Surovikin's arrest were diluted with information about "unconfirmed rumors on Shoigu and Gerasimov’s arrests." At the same time, regarding FSB generals, "credible information" is being spread about the alleged "interrogation of Surovikin by prosecutors." That repression will not affect him as a popular combat general.

July 3, 2023, Tsargrad TV: "Over the last few days, insider information about the detention of certain military personnel in leading positions in the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of Russia is not just mussed up, but is allegedly forced upon us. The reference to such messages was the demand for an armed rebellion in Russia. The growing volume of fakes is understandable...

There were rumors about Shoigu's detention. The Federal Guard Service (FSO) did not detain the ego but hid it for now. The same is with Gerasimov. By law, this is a mandatory procedure in the event of a threat.

But as soon as these intrusions subsided, new ones appeared. Now General Sergey Surovikin was appointed as the target (it was also mentioned about the alleged detention of his deputy, but Colonel-General Andrey Yudin has already personally denied this information)…

Suppose one briefly describes the new fake's essence, for example, about Surovikin. In that case, it can be reduced to the following: the army general was friends with the founder of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who supported this PMC, and now he has paid for it since the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, began a significant purge against the security forces. However, there needs to be more truth in these publications. First, the fact that the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) head coordinates its work with the PMC has not been denied earlier. Secondly, the Wagner rebellion was regarded as a blow in the back, and the head of state twice spoke of punishment.

Thirdly, a major purge is being prepared in Russia, primarily among the elites. It is not excluded that the heads of the generals may also be "cut down". Here we are only talking about the so-called "carpet knights" and not about combat commanders like Surovikin, who perform assigned tasks on the front line in the SMO zone.

Alexander Mikhailov, a retired FSB general and a member of the Supreme Council of the All-Russian movement "Strong Russia" (Сильная Россия), commented on the situation live on Pervyi Russkiy TV channel (Первого русского). According to his data, the head of the VKS talked with the investigators:

"I would not say that these are interrogations. The prosecutor's office is simply questioning a person, and it has the right to question any high-ranking leader on a fact that interests it today. There is no question of a criminal case against a specific person."

Also, the attention to the information about the arrests or detention of generals to "oligarchs" and "bureaucrats" who managed to leave the country during the rebellion was diverted:

July 6, 2023, Tsargrad TV: "State Duma organized an investigation against the representatives of the authorities who left the country on June 24, fearing the mutiny of Wagner PMC. It was stated by the Chairman of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin. In his address to the deputies, he noted that "those who, at a difficult moment for the country, left it, have left" are subject to condemnation, not only in words. The host of Pervyi Russkiy TV channel, Yuriy Pronko, drew attention to the fact that Volodin, for the first time, indicated that there is also a state oligarchy, which sits in state corporations, state banks, and state companies, whose representatives are called top managers. He noted that these people, de facto and de jure, are not limited by anything. Still, many have access to state secrets because these large structures are somehow affiliated or directly connected with the Russian state."

At the same time, media space has launched several "plausible" versions of General Surovikin's long-term absence from the public. However, in the end, everything boils down to one thought: no matter what happens to Surovikin, Putin is always right in his decisions. In this way, the Russians were reassured and tried to completely cover the topic of Surovikin's absence in public space.

July 4, 2023, Tsargrad TV:

Version #1: Conspiracy charges and arrest

"Only naive people or outright provocateurs can believe that they will imperceptibly push the army general into a "funnel", take him somewhere, and imprison him. I'm not talking about officially pressing charges, if necessary. It is true that there are options to do everything secretly. But! There is an important point: we need strong grounds for detaining a high-ranking Armed Forces officer. Especially one who, as far as I know, is very popular in the army environment," noted the reserve officer of the military counterintelligence, Sergei P., in an interview with Tsargrad. According to him, fakes about the arrest of Surovikin very much resemble an ackamarackus, designed primarily to destabilize the situation at the front, where information reaches poorly, in a truncated volume. It's a big mistake that no formal refutation from official sources exists.

Retired Lieutenant General of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Leonid Reshetnikov, confirmed: "secretly" put behind bars a military commander of such a level as Sergey Surovikin is from the realm of fiction...

Version #2: Isolation for the investigation’s duration

One of the Telegram channels, which positions itself as a source of insiders from the special services, claims that two officers from his closest circle wrote reports on Sergey Surovikin. They did it voluntarily. Since no one provided accurate data, there was an assumption that the head of the VKS was "temporarily isolated" during the investigation into the riot.

"The criminal case against Prigozhin was closed; that's correct. But let's not forget what the PMC founder said: about support in the army, about dissatisfaction with the leadership of the department, about failures at the front. Now let's evaluate everything with a cool head. Do we need to check this information? Or should it simply be rejected? But the questions remain, don't they? So they need to be answered. Which, in my humble guess, is what military investigators and prosecutors are doing now, relying not on gossip, but on clear intelligence, counterintelligence, and official documents — orders, instructions, etc.," summed up a former employee of the Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation ("green" FSB).

Version No. 3: Surovikin left office himself

"Undoubtedly, this version would be one of the most pleasant for our enemies - after the first one voiced. Imagine: one of the most prominent and successful SMO commanders after a scandalous mutiny resigns. Immediately a lot of problems arise, first of all for the Supreme of the Commander-in-Chief and the General Staff (here, regardless of the personality of his chief, Valeriy Gerasimov): who to replace, how the new appointee will act, and so on...

The reshuffle, as it is called, for the sake of the reshuffle itself, will not happen since there is a war, that is, a special operation. Doing something to please someone is wrong. But a year and a half of military operations have passed — and, probably, specific results can be summarized and, accordingly, decisions be made. I think the Supreme Commander-in-Chief will do it - without external pressure", - said SVR Lieutenant General Leonid Reshetnikov.

However, throughout the month, Surovikin’s fate remains a severe irritant to Russian propaganda. From time to time, the Kremlin has to spread alternative versions to reduce the weight of rumors about the general and divert public attention from his figure.

July 13, 2023, RIA Novosti: "Responsible Secretary of the Public Monitoring Commission (ONK) of Moscow, Aleksey Melnikov, denied reports that Army General Sergey Surovikin is allegedly in the Matroskaya Tisha and the Kremlevsky Central federal detention center located on its territory headquarters", stated that during the visit, the establishment made sure that the general was not there.

"This week, I visited SIZO-6 (women's detention center — ed.), SIZO-1/77 (Matroskaya Tisha), SIZO-1/99 (Kremlevsky Central) and SIZO-4. Information on Surovikin was being checked. He was not there. Surprisingly, (Ukrainian journalist Anatoliy) Shariy and (Telegram channel) VČK-OGPU (All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, VČK, ВЧК-ОГПУ) continue to assert the opposite. However, it is worth noting that the VČK now says Sergey Vladimirovich may be in the Odintsovo district. I cannot confirm or deny it — it is the Moscow region’s Public Oversight Commission (ONK) territory. But it is unlikely that he is there, and indeed in any place of compulsory detention (this fact is challenging to hide)," wrote Melnikov in his Telegram channel.

July 18, 2023, Moscow Komsomolets:

"The question of the whereabouts of one of the critical Russian military commanders, Sergei Surovikin, continues to excite the public. The general's long absence gives rise to various rumors about his fate.

Remember that the last time Surovikin appeared on the air was on June 24 during Prigozhin’s rebellion. The general then called on the Wagner PMC to stop. After that, Surovikin disappeared from public radars.

At the end of June, rumors appeared in a number of Russian and Western sources that the general was detained in connection with possible involvement in the mutiny and is in the Lefortovo (Лефортово) pre-trial detention center. The Public Supervisory Commission of Moscow issued a rebuttal. And on July 13, the ONK representative, Alexey Melnikov, added that Surovikin is not in the other detention centers where high-ranking persons can be held: Matroskaya Tisha, Kremlevsky Central, and Medved pre-trial detention center.

The Wall Street Journal also reported on the general’s possible detention. Sources told the publication that Surovyikin had allegedly been interrogated several times for his involvement in the mutiny. He will be released when the head of state decides how to deal with the political consequences of the PMC uprising.

The foreign-agent publication Novaya Gazeta puts forward the opposite version of Surovikin's fate. According to it, the general is out of reach of Russian law enforcement agencies, as if it depends only on him whether he will return under their control. It remains unknown what these conclusions are based on."

July 27, 2023, Arguments and Facts (Аргументы и Факты):

"The presenter and journalist Ksenia Sobchak spoke about the disappearance of General Sergey Surovikin from Novosibirsk. According to her, the military leader's family has retained all general privileges, including security. Sobchak announced this in her Telegram channel.

"The general privileges of the Surovikin family, such as security, for example, remain," the journalist wrote.

July 27, 2023, Moscow Komsomolets:

"General Sergei Surovikin, who disappeared after the mutiny of the Wagner PMC, remains in the press attention field. BFM-Novosibirsk (BFM-Новосибирск) journalists found out information about the income of the deputy commander of the United Forces Group.

The last public declarations of the general's earnings and property were published in 2019. After that, the law on state protection of security forces came into effect.

The document says that Sergey Surovikin earned more than 30 million rubles from 2017 to 2019, and his wife Anna — about 20 million.

The general had two apartments of 107.5 and 288.4 square meters. He also owned a Mercedes-Benz V250 car.

The general's wife had two apartments of 82.7 and 288.4 square meters, a share in the 107.5 square meters apartment, plots of land with a total area of 5,613 square meters, a residential house of 685.5 square meters, a residential building of 33.6 square meters, and a parking space. Anna Surovikina also owned Toyota Land Cruiser 200.

Therefore, in July, Russian media space launched a powerful and long-lasting "clearance" campaign for any alternative and independent sources of information about the war and Putin's politics. It was complicated because, at the same time, Kremlin disinformers had to respond to external informational influences and fight the impression of weakness and vulnerability of Putin's regime.

The main focus of these efforts was the "reappropriation" and destruction of the Wagner group’s public brand as something independent and not subordinated to Putin personally. In the regional media of Russia's sixteen largest cities with a million people, a strict taboo was imposed on Prigozhin in general, except for verbatim quoting materials from the [Kremlin] court pool.

Great efforts were made to divert Russians’ attention from the fate of the hyped General Sergey Surovikin. His sudden disappearance immediately after appealing to the Wagnerians with a call to end the rebellion raised many questions. The truth about his fate would provide many crucial clues about what happened on June 24, whether Putin's power is really strong, and whether the war against Ukraine is necessary. Hiding this truth from Russia’s population was Russian propagandists’ most significant and challenging task.

The Russian disinformation machine also performed several tasks to misguide foreign audiences. Read about it soon in the second part of the July review.

Photo credits: Getty Images

Read the June monitoring here: part 1, part 2.