What had stung him when, alone against all, Ilia Ponomarev voted against the annexation of Crimea in 2014, in the Duma, the Russian Parliament? Having taken refuge in kyiv in a place he cannot reveal, the former deputy for Siberia secretly organizes armed resistance in his country, Russia. According to him, Ukraine should benefit from the divisions within the Russian power, revealed to the whole world during the abortive putsch of Wagner and his leader Evgueni Prigojine. He also sees it as an opportunity for his dissident movement. Interview.

Le Point: Is there a winner in the coup attempted by the boss of the Wagner Group?

Does that mean it was all orchestrated by the Kremlin?

No, but Vladimir Putin must have been made aware of Prigozhin’s plot. And he let it happen while observing what was happening and never letting the situation escape him.

What will become of Yevgeny Prigojine?

We won’t see him again in Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin is considered a traitor and a loser; the Russians don’t like either. He no longer has any political future. But Yevgeny Prigozhin never really intended to go to government; he is a businessman, not a politician. The Ukraine interested him only insofar as there was money to be made. Lately, he has instead been looking to extricate himself from the Ukrainian quagmire to return to his most profitable business in Africa. It comes close because it is easier to go to Africa by cargo plane from Minsk than from Rostov-on-Don.

Don’t you think he can just be eliminated?

I very much doubt that he can be eliminated in Belarus, as he has received guarantees for his safety from both presidents. It would be too big. But then in Africa, where I think he’s going soon, anything could happen.

Will Ukraine benefit from this situation?

This kind of crisis does not reassure the Russian soldiers sent to the front. We can see it: their morale and their motivation continue to drop, unlike the Ukrainians who, despite the difficulty of the fighting, feel that victory is within their reach. Russia is sick. Since 2014 and the start of the war in Donbass, the division has been brewing. Gradually, violent eruptions rise to the surface, as with Prigozhin, and there will be more and more of them. It’s a slow civil war. I can already see it: there are more and more volunteers in Russia who want to join our armed resistance movement.