Prigozhin denies trying to overthrow Russian government

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Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner private military group, has denied trying to overthrow the Russian government when his forces marched on Moscow over the weekend.

In an 11-minute voice recording posted on Telegram on Monday, Prigozhin said he intended to voice his objection to the recent decision to disband the militia, as well as to demonstrate the weakness of Russia’s domestic security.

Prigozhin did not name President Vladimir Putin, saying, “Our goal was not to topple the current regime, which is legally elected, as we have said many times.”

“Our decision to change came from two important factors,” he said. “The first was that we did not want to shed Russian blood. Second, we were marching to protest, not to oust the government.”

Prigozhin, using the official Russian euphemism, said, “The goal was to prevent the destruction of Wagner (private military company) and to hold accountable those who, with their unprofessional actions, made a large amount of mistakes during the special military operation.” ” For a full scale invasion of Ukraine.

This is a developing story