On June 23, the owner of the private military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who initially gained fame as Putin’s cook, announced that he was starting a “march of justice” and was going to reach Moscow. He did not talk about overthrowing the government; it seemed to be only about holding the leadership of the Ministry of Defense accountable. Nevertheless, it was an armed rebellion, and it showed that many in the country were waiting for change, although they were not going to start a dangerous fight for it themselves.
Prigozhin’s demarche was preceded by his long conflict with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. He accused the head of the Ministry of Defense of the fact that the “Wagnerites” fighting in the Ukrainian Bakhmut were not provided with ammunition, that the military strategy of the command was outdated, and the generals were mired in corruption, and, finally, that the Russian military launched a missile attack on the rear camps of the Wagner PMC. Shoigu, in turn, did not like the presence of a private army in the country, the size, popularity and independence of which was growing, so in June he obliged all “Wagnerites” to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense. Shoigu’s department denied the missile strike, calling it an “information provocation.”
On June 24, Prigozhin’s mercenaries took control of Rostov-on-Don without resistance and headed towards Moscow, calmly passing through the Voronezh and Lipetsk regions. On the way, they shot down a military plane and 6 helicopters of the Russian Army. 15 servicemen flying in them died. A counter-terrorist operation regime was declared in the capital. But most governors did not react to what was happening, not knowing who to bet on. The country froze in anticipation.
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who six months ago called Prigozhin “much respected” and “dear brother,” declared the rebellion a “vile betrayal.” However, their relationship deteriorated back in May.
Ramzan Kadyrov and Yevgeny Prigozhin had a lot in common at the beginning of the war: both owned their own armies, which, although financed from the state treasury, were personally subordinate to them. Both had special relationships with Putin, which allowed them not only to break the law more openly than others, but also to criticize their opponents, regardless of chain of command. And both took advantage of this opportunity, more than openly pouring out their dissatisfaction with the actions of the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, Sergei Shoigu and other generals on the social network. By the way, this also united them - an understanding of the importance of presence and influence in the information field. They even collaborated in this area when the Prigozhin resource RIA FAN leaked to the Internet the contents of the Yangulbayevs’ intra-family chat, obtained by operatives of the Center for Special Investigations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic.
When in October Ramzan Kadyrov published a post on his TG channel insulting the commander of the Central Military District, Colonel General Alexander Lapin, calling him a mediocrity, Prigozhin supported him, writing: “Ramzan, handsome, burn!” Kadyrov, in turn, did not skimp on praise for the owner of Wagner: “I fully support Yevgeny Viktorovich. Dear BROTHER Prigozhin is a born warrior, his fighters are true professionals and patriots of Russia, fearless, persistent, courageous. These are truly valuable fighting units. Therefore, it is necessary to pay close attention to the assessment of precisely such people, listen, and draw conclusions. They know exactly what is right and what is wrong in war.”
“I never cease to rejoice at the successes of the Wagner PMC in the Northern Military District zone,” Kadyrov continued in February 2023. - It would seem that this is a private military company, but it managed to achieve very impressive results. And this despite the fact that PMC assault teams always take on the extremely difficult part of the work.” In April, the head of Chechnya published a joint photo in which he and Prigozhin were holding hands and laughing, allegedly after discussing Western sanctions. However, already in May the “brothers” quarreled.
This happened after an ultimatum from Prigozhin, who stated that if his units were not given the necessary ammunition, they would leave Artemovsk. In response, Kadyrov wrote a conciliatory post in which he called on the owner of Wagner not to give “pleasant news feeds to the enemy” with his statements. In conclusion, he warned: “If the older brother Prigozhin and “Wagner” leave, the General Staff will lose an experienced combat unit, and his place in Artemovsk will be replaced by the younger brother Kadyrov and “Akhmat.” If the scenario still goes like this, then our fighters are ready to move out and occupy the city. It's a matter of a few hours."

Prigozhin took this statement with irony, making it clear that he doubted the combat effectiveness of Kadyrov’s units. At the same time, he spoke quite respectfully about the military qualities of the Chechens, shown by them during the Russian-Chechen wars: “It was a war with 15-year-old boys who came down from the mountains with machine guns and with the so-called Arab mercenaries. They had nothing but a light machine gun and an RPG at best. And these 15-year-old boys... were killing our entire Soviet army.”
After this, relations between Prigozhin and Kadyrov completely deteriorated. The public squabble reached the level of “let’s meet, let’s talk like men,” in which their close associates also became involved. However, the meeting did not take place even in June, during the days of the rebellion, when Kadyrov said that “soldiers of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Guard in the Chechen Republic have already left for tension zones.”
As Grozny-inform reported, units of the Akhmat special forces and the 78th motorized special forces regiment Sever-Akhmat, participating in hostilities in the Maryinsky direction in Ukraine, were redeployed near Rostov-on-Don on the morning of June 24 “to conduct counter-terrorist operation against the rebels." In addition, 3 thousand soldiers of the 94th and 96th operational regiments of the National Guard troops, the “South” battalion, the 141st motorized regiment and military personnel of the National Guard department for Chechnya were sent from the Chechen Republic to Moscow “to protect the capital of Russia.”
Menacing video footage has appeared on the Internet of a convoy of armored vehicles in which units from Chechnya are advancing against the rebels. However, they never entered Rostov-on-Don. According to experts, they again, as in Ukraine, played the role of “tik-tok” warriors, fighting more on the information battlefield. Kadyrov again showed his loyalty to Putin, feigned support, but at the same time Kadyrov’s men did not enter into an open clash with the mercenaries.
On the evening of June 24, with the assistance of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Yevgeny Prigozhin agreed with the Kremlin to stop the offensive and return the forces of the Wagner PMC to their places of deployment in exchange for guarantees of immunity. Lukashenko himself soon spoke about his role in these negotiations, perhaps exaggerating it considerably. Observers later put forward different, sometimes contradictory, versions on this matter. However, the truth remained “behind the scenes”, since none of the parties involved in this story - neither Putin, at whose request, if you believe the words of the Belarusian president, he allegedly contacted Prigozhin as an intermediary, nor the former cook himself - no one commented interesting statements by the head of Belarus.
Touching on the topic of the reasons for the “Prigozhin rebellion,” Kadyrov made a statement that the actions of the head of the PMC are connected with his business interests. “A chain of unsuccessful business deals caused the businessman to harbor a deep-seated and long-lasting resentment, which reached its peak when the authorities of St. Petersburg did not provide his daughter with the desired plot of land. The arrogance of one person could lead to such dangerous consequences and drag a large number of people into the conflict,” he said in his Telegram channel.
As experts note, Kadyrov has once again shown foresight and political flair, which even his opponents recognize. By choosing the right position in time, supporting Shoigu, he demonstrated his boundless devotion to the president. Exclusively through PR, without risking anything, he not only did not spend any resources - on the contrary, he multiplied them, acting as Putin’s defender and bargaining for himself the next preferences.