Amid infighting among Putin’s lieutenants, head of mercenary force appears to take a step too far

(AP) — For months, the outspoken millionaire head of the Wagner private mercenary force bombarded Russia’s military leaders with expletive-ridden insults in a rift that has weakened the country’s forces amid the war in Ukraine.

Yevgeny Prigozhin accused them of not providing him with munitions in the key battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut.

A video in May showed him standing in front of the bloodied bodies of his slain troops yelling obscenities at Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, calling them weak and incompetent, blaming them for the carnage.

“They came here as volunteers and they died to let you lounge in your mahogany offices,” Prigozhin declared. “You are sitting in your expensive clubs, your children are enjoying good living and filming videos on YouTube. Those who don’t give us ammunition will be eaten alive in hell!”

He even made what some considered a thinly veiled jab at President Vladimir Putin as an oblivious “granddad” thinking the invasion was going well.

On Friday, however, Prigozhin appeared to take a step too far.

He accused Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike on the field camps for his mercenary troops, with a huge number of casualties, and said he would move to punish him.

That’s when Russian authorities struck back, with the country’s top counterterrorism organization launching a criminal inquiry against Prigozhin and calling for his arrest on charges of fomenting an “armed rebellion” over threats to oust Shoigu.

It was a startling turn of events in Moscow: After more than two decades of rigidly controlled rule by Putin, the worst infighting spilled out in the open among his top lieutenants.

And it came as the war in Ukraine reached the 16-month mark and Kyiv’s forces were probing Russian defenses in the initial stages of a counteroffensive.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin has been informed about the situation, adding: “All the necessary measures were being taken.”

Prigozhin, 62, insisted his actions were not “a military coup, but a march of justice.”

Prigozhin said his men would punish the military leaders who ordered the strike and said his troops would fire at any troops trying to stop them.

“The evil embodied by the country’s military leadership must be stopped,” he shouted in a recorded statement, adding that his forces weren’t seeking to challenge Putin and other government structures. “Justice in the armed forces will be restored, and then justice will be restored in all of Russia.”

The Defense Ministry denied it had attacked Prigozhin’s troops. Then the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, an arm of Federal Security Service, or FSB, announced the investigation against the outspoken millionaire and urged Wagner’s own forces to arrest their boss.

Prigozhin’s statement was a “stab in the back of the Russian troops,” the FSB said, and amounted to fomenting armed conflict in Russia.