Vladimir Putin reportedly flees Moscow as Wagner forces advance in Russia
Vladimir Putin’s presidential plane left Moscow early Saturday, sparking rumors that he had fled the Russian capital as the Wagner Group’s mercenary forces advanced on the city.
The president’s aircraft was spotted on flight radar flying northwest from Moscow to the St Petersburg area — but then disappeared from the system near the city of Tver, the BBC reported, where Putin owns a large rural retreat.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that his boss had turned tail amid the crisis, telling news agency TASS that he was “working in the Kremlin.”
But Igor Artamonov, the governor of the Russian region of Lipetsk just south of Moscow, confirmed that a military column carrying Wagner Group men and materiel was on the move through the village of Krasnoye, about 250 miles from the capital, and heading north, according to CNN .
Meanwhile Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said his forces are coming to help Russia put down the mutiny by the private Wagner Group, which has taken control of one Russian city and gained a foothold in another, creating the biggest threat to Putin’s presidency in his long career.
The Wagner forces included troop carriers and at least one tank on a flatbed truck.
In Moscow, there was an increased security presence on the streets with reports of sandbags blocking key arteries.
Red Square was blocked off by metal barriers.
Videos on Twitter showed increasing violence, such as a strike on what appeared to be an insurgent convoy heading for Moscow on the M-4 highway.
Putin compared Prigozhin’s show of force to the Bolshevik revolution and Russia’s civil war that began a little over 100 years ago.
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