“Moscow Maidan”, “Attempted Coup d’Etat” against Putin? There Never Was A Plan, The M-4 Rostov-Moscow Highway

There was a hype in propaganda and US political statements against President Putin. 

Putin knew about it before it happened. He was briefed by Russia’s Ministry of Defense and the FSB. 

US intel had advanced knowledge of Prigozhin’s intent.

“U.S. spy agencies had indications days earlier that Mr. Prigozhin was planning something and worked to refine that material into a finished assessment, officials said.” (NYT, June 24, 2023)

It is worth noting that on June 21 (2 days prior to Prigozhin’s “Mutiny”), US Intel. had already briefed senior military and government officials. 

There is no evidence that it was a US intelligence op. 

There is Something very Fishy

The Wagner Group was founded in 2014. Wagner PMC had been fighting courageously on behalf of Luhansk and Donesk since 2014-2015, coming to the rescue of civilians. 

In his June 23 video, Prigozhin casually denied his commitment to the people of Donbass, emphatically stating that the “war in Ukraine had been unleashed under false pretenses”.

Who wrote his script? 

It is worth noting that the Wagner PMC  was founded in 2014 by a former Ukrainian-born GRU officer Dmitry Utkin together with Prigozhin. Allegedly, Utkin had Nazi leanings. The PMC mercenary group was named by Utkin in honor of German Composer Richard Wagner. 

Prigozhin is an oligarch. His net worth is in excess of 1 billion dollars (according to Forbes). Was he co-opted and bribed to trigger an alleged “coup” against president Putin? 

There Never Was A Plan to Carry Out a Coup d’Etat

Since June 22-23, I have reviewed countless articles from mainstream and independent sources. Many Global Research authors are renowned military and intelligence experts familiar with the logic and parameters of regime change and coups d’état.

There is an issue which visibly no one has addressed, specifically the numerous pundits and “authoritative sources” who claim that it was an “attempted” or “failed” coup d’Etat”:

The Rostov-Moscow M-4 Highway 

Beneath the complexities of the crisis, there never was a real plan to wage a coup d’Etat, i.e. a so-called “Moscow Maidan”. Why? Use your common sense.

You do not plan and announce a coup d’Etat in Rostov on the Don which is at the tip of the Sea of Azov and then drive North on Russia’s busy M-4 highway with a clumsy convoy of Wagner tanks.

From Rostov to Moscow’s Red Square, it’s a tiring trip of more than 1000 kilometers.

The Answer should have been obvious from the start. Have a look at the map below.

Russia’s state of the Art T-tanks can travel at a speed of 50-80 km an hour. In other words, it would take (with possible stop overs) 15 to 20 hours (not to mention traffic before reaching the Red Square).

(Jokingly, it’s like planning a military op. on Miami Beach, driving up from Florida on Highway 95 to Washington DC, and waging a coup against the White House). 

Geography, location, distance are key concepts (combined of course with an understanding of  the political, social and military dimensions). Prigozhin is not ignorant. He had no intent on planning a coup d’Etat against Putin as perceived in chorus by the mainstream media. That was not his game. 

On a personal note, I lived the US sponsored coup in Santiago de Chile on September 11, 1973 which instated the Pinochet regime. A couple of years later, I was in Argentina at the outset of Jorge Videla’s military Junta (1976) which was supported by the Rockefellers.

A Moscow Coup d’Etat planned in Donbass? And then you travel up to Moscow to confront president Putin. This is nonsensical.

It was at best “an act of mutiny” led by Prigozhin. He is a billionaire. He’s interested in money. Was he paid off to do it? This is a matter for further investigation. 

According to Scott Ritter (June 23):

“…a concerted effort between Wagner, the Ukrainian intelligence service, and their Western sponsors … Prigozhin is working on behalf of foreign intelligence Services carrying out their tasks. That task is to collapse the government of Vladimir Putin. I personally believe that he won’t succeed. But that’s what’s happening this morning”

There were two possible scenarios

First Scenario: Had the Russian Airforce been instructed by the Kremlin, it could have destroyed the Wagner convoy on the Rostov-Moscow M-4 highway (“a piece of cake”) in less than an hour.

But that did not happen. Is that what US-NATO and Western propagandists wanted? 

The Second scenario was applied. The Russian Government advised by the MOF and FSB  took the decision not to intervene militarily. Wagner troops split up. Prigozhin fled to Minsk. There was no real convoy en route to Moscow.

Copyright © Prof Michel Chossudovsky, 2023