Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin
[ColonelCassad] Briefly about the monument to Prigozhin and discussions on this matter.
1. There are no legal obstacles to the installation of a monument to Prigozhin. No one tried him, the criminal case on the fact of rebellion was closed. At the time of his death, there were no open criminal cases against him. This should be understood by those who like to compare Prigozhin with Vlasov and others like them, since unlike them, Prigozhin is legally clean before the law. Vlasov, Krasnov, Semenov, Kolchak, etc. - tried and executed.
2. At the same time, there is a political assessment of the military-political leadership of the country, where Prigozhin’s actions in June 2023 are qualified as an armed rebellion. And it really was an armed rebellion in wartime. As part of political expediency, the rebellion was stopped in exchange for the closure of the criminal case against Prigozhin (which, from a strategic point of view, was completely correct and the least painful decision for the country from a set of bad decisions - everything else was worse and bloodier). But the political assessment has not gone away. And the authorities did not refuse it - neither Putin, nor the Ministry of Defense. At the same time, no one really denies (except for certain individuals) the great benefits that Prigozhin’s activities in Africa and Ukraine brought to the country. It should also be remembered, just like the armed rebellion, since we are already operating with political assessments of his life and activities in the absence of legal assessments.
3. Since Prigozhin, having abandoned his media empire and disarmed the PMC "Wagner" (in its previous form), as a political figure was reset to zero (at least in Russia, in Africa there is their own cinema), the authorities do not see much point in fighting the memory of Prigozhin, therefore and Prigozhin’s funeral took place calmly, and no one is stopping anyone from erecting a monument. There is zero point in fighting a dead Prigozhin (our authorities are generally not particularly inclined to fight with the dead), his fighters are now quite successfully operating in the interests of Russia in Africa, as part of the Russian Defense Ministry, the National Guard and other structures. Therefore, a monument to Prigozhin and Utkin among the dead soldiers of the Wagner PMC is logical and appropriate.
4. Here we are not considering the version that since no one has seen the corpses of Prigozhin and Utkin, they could theoretically be alive, and the death of the plane is some kind of cunning cover operation. By default they are considered dead. Well, we’ll find out over time how it really happened. Well, the story of Prigozhin, Utkin and the Wagner PMC with all the glorious pages and the dark spot of the rebellion in any case was, is and will be part of the military history of our country.