In Yekaterinburg, a car rally was held in support of PMC “Wagner”

In Yekaterinburg on Sunday, a car rally was held in support of PMC “Wagner”. The action was not coordinated with the authorities, but the police did not prevent it from being carried out.

More than a hundred cars with panels with PMC symbols drove from the “Carnaval” shopping center to the cemetery where “Wagner” mercenaries who died in Ukraine are buried. According to the local publication E1.ru, “drivers of expensive cars gathered on the spot: Porsche, Mercedes-Benz G-class, Land Rover, many rogue numbers.” A prayer service was held at the cemetery.

The Ministry of Public Safety of the Sverdlovsk region called the action illegal, since the authorities did not agree on the mileage. Materials regarding the organizers of the action have been handed over to law enforcement agencies, the ministry said. The head of the local branch of the PMC “Wagner” with the call sign “Strazhnyk” (his real name is withheld) reported that he submitted an application, but the authorities did not approve it. Now, according to his words, he is ready to answer within the framework of the law.

The rally took place against the background of the recent statement by PMC founder Evgeny Prigozhin criticizing the Ministry of Defense and the Presidential Administration. A few days ago, Prigozhin announced that the fighters of PMC “Wagner” had taken the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, for which fighting had been going on since last summer, and now they would be retired, and handed over positions in the city of the Ministry of Defense. Ukraine has not officially confirmed the loss of the city, although it admits that most of it is controlled by Russia. Prigozhin’s sharp rhetoric combined with his reliance on a powerful armed organization leads many commentators to assume that he has political ambitions.

In February, Prigozhin had a public conflict with the governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, Evgeny Kuivashev. The founder of the PMC criticized the local authorities for burying “Wagner” fighters without military honors. Kuivashev in turn advised him to return to the culinary business (Prygozhin is the founder of the Concord corporation, engaged in food products and the restaurant business, he became famous as “Putin’s cook”). In response, Prigozhin expressed the opinion that the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin shot people like Kuivashev, and threatened him that the people would “raise him on the pitchfork.”