The St. Petersburg Governor for the first time publicly recognized the conflict with Prigozhin

The governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov for the first time publicly recognized the conflict with the founder and head of the Wagner PMC Evgeny Prigozhin. He made a statement on the 78 channel, his quotes are published by the press service of Smolny.

"There was a conflict. Between the city and the dirty business, the greedy dealers who wanted to take control of all sectors of the urban economy," Beglov said.

The governor accused the “dirty business” of theft of housing from equity holders, attempts to “squeeze” the sphere of social food, garbage collection and the construction of the metro from the authorities. Due to the problems, it is in these areas that runes are regularly criticized by residents, activists and opposition politicians.

The governor claims that the government needed to make a lot of efforts to "return the city’s control over these most important industries."

Beglov also stated that he consciously does not respond to “personal attacks” and “provocations” from the “dirty business”, adding that “time has been placing everything in places.”

“Now everyone saw who is actually with our president, and who wishes the bloody feud for our country.” Said Beglov. “With traitors and provocateurs to St. Petersburg, there is no way along the way.”

At the same time, the governor never named the name Prigozhin.

The conflict of Prigozhin with Beglov has been going on for more than two years. The businessman repeatedly accused the governor of corruption. According to Prigozhin, Beglov created an organized criminal group that controls all the budget spheres of St. Petersburg.

Beglov, for his part, also sharply criticizes Prigozhin. For example, the governor publicly stated, not naming the name that "a certain famous businessman robs children" in the field of social nutrition (Prigozhin, the company "Concord" is engaged in food supplies for schools and social institutions).

The confrontation of Beglov and Prigozhin was aggravated after the start of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine. Then Prigozhin openly admitted that he is the creator and owner of the "PMC Wagner", which conducts military operations in Ukraine and recruits mercenaries to participate in them, including in Russian prisons. Earlier, the businessman denied his connection with PMCs. On Friday, June 23, Prigozhin, against the backdrop of a conflict with Sergey Shoigu, accused the Russian Ministry of Defense of delivering a missile strike on the rear positions of the "Wagnerians" and announced the "march of justice" to Moscow in order to hold the Minister Shoigu and the head of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. For a day, the columns of the Wagner PMC managed to actually take control of Rostov-on-Don and, presumably, Voronezh.

By the evening of June 24, it became known about negotiations between Prigozhin and Alexander Lukashenko. As a result of these consultations, the promotion of Wagner columns to Moscow was stopped. Prigozhin said that his fighters "go in the opposite direction to the field camps according to the plan." The Russian authorities said they would allow him to "go to Belarus."

After the armed rebellion, arranged by Prigozhin last weekend, Beglov turned to the deputies of the city legislation and stated that the authorities "managed to protect the city." This happened, said Beglov, because the activities of the city government "was aimed at the stability of the development of St. Petersburg and the support of President Vladimir Putin."

“If this had not been, then the dirty business would have occupied all the main sectors of our city economy. There would be a completely different situation,” the governor said.

• On Friday evening, when the rebellion of Prigozhin began, messages about searches in the Wagner PMC - a center located in St. Petersburg began to appear. Journalists who found only guards on the spot gathered there. They said that there were no searches.
• Apparently, the case reached real investigative actions only on Saturday - not only in Wagner PMCs, but also in other structures associated with Prigozhin, including a hotel and a restaurant. As a result, in particular, a collection of Prigozhin’s passports for different names and a gazelle with billions of rubles in cash was found (the head of the Wagner PMC claims that the money was for salaries for mercenaries and compensation for families).
• The criminal case against Prigozhin was opened under an article on military rebellion. A few days later it became known that the case was stopped. The persecution of Prigozhin under articles that may be related to his business, neither during the days of the rebellion, nor after him were reported.