Wagner Mutiny: 2-Year Anniversary & Eyewitness Accounts
- Two years after Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner group launched a brief but dramatic rebellion, eyewitnesses spoke with The Moscow Times about their experiences during those chaotic hours.
- Petersburg news agency known for its role in Prigozhin's media operations as a "troll factory." On the evening of June 23, 2023, she was awakened by urgent calls...
- "My phone was blowing up," Polina said, withholding her last name for security.
Two years after the Wagner mutiny, the world re-examines the brief but impactful rebellion. Eyewitnesses share thier firsthand accounts of the chaos and confusion that unfolded during Prigozhin’s march on Moscow,revealing the motivations and unanswered questions surrounding the event. Polina, a former RIA FAN employee, describes the frantic atmosphere within Prigozhin’s media operations. Military presence and seized assets in Rostov-on-Don show the power of Wagner forces. News Directory 3 reported on the soldiers’ disappointment, reflecting on the unresolved motives behind the rebellion. Explore the turning points etched in history. Discover what’s next …
Prigozhin Rebellion: Witnesses Recall Wagner’s Aborted march
Updated June 26, 2025
Two years after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group launched a brief but dramatic rebellion, eyewitnesses spoke with The Moscow Times about their experiences during those chaotic hours. Their accounts paint a picture of confusion, opportunism, and lingering questions about the motives behind the march on Moscow.
Polina, 22, worked at RIA FAN, the St. Petersburg news agency known for its role in Prigozhin’s media operations as a “troll factory.” On the evening of June 23, 2023, she was awakened by urgent calls from her superiors.
“My phone was blowing up,” Polina said, withholding her last name for security. “My bosses where asking everyone who was able to come to work urgently… Wagner’s press service was flooding us with news.”
She was stunned to learn that prigozhin had declared a “march of justice,” sending Wagner mercenaries toward Moscow.Prigozhin accused Russia’s military leaders of corruption and hampering the war effort in Ukraine.
Fargoh / Wikimedia Commons
Polina said she felt a strange respect for Prigozhin, Putin’s former chef, who was now rebelling against his former patron. “It felt like something new,” she recalled. “I was pleasantly impressed… but not for long.”
working from home that night,Polina struggled to keep up with events. Wagner’s forces entered Rostov-on-Don, a city of 1 million, without resistance and seized key military facilities.
The editor-in-chief of RIA FAN offered little guidance, telling staff to “keep working for now and figure it out later,” Polina said. Soon, reports surfaced that prigozhin’s media empire was shutting down.
“In every article, they called us ‘Prigozhin’s trolls’,” Polina said. She noted that while some colleagues mocked the label, others recognized the propaganda role they played.
Polina said most of her colleagues were not notably patriotic and were more concerned about their salaries than Prigozhin’s fate. “we never really talked about politics during breaks,” she said. “Everyone was mainly worried about their salaries.”
She later learned that RIA FAN’s top editors knew about the impending searches and deleted their personal data from shared files before quietly leaving without warning their staff. A week later, all RIA FAN employees were asked to resign.
Polina has not stayed in touch with her former colleagues. “After they left me without a salary, I didn’t want to think about Prigozhin or his companies ever again,” she said. Some found work at other outlets,she added,noting that “there was a lot of demand for former ‘trolls.'”
Dmitry, an officer from Rostov-on-Don, said Prigozhin’s actions remain confusing. “Prigozhin did a lot for the front [in the war],” he said. “But no one really understands why he did what he did that day. It’s a shame about the guys who died.”
He concluded, “His rebellion will go down in our country’s history as a turning point that never happened.”
What’s next
The long-term consequences of Prigozhin’s rebellion remain unclear, but the event exposed vulnerabilities within the russian system and raised questions about the stability of President Vladimir Putin’s regime.