Meanwhile, as the war has escalated, Russia’s propaganda machine has jumped at every opportunity to show that, as Putin warned when he launched his “special military operation” in February 2022, NATO wants to invade Russia, with the Kursk incursion as the ultimate proof.
The message is that the bigger the threat, the more Russians should stand united and that those who don’t, like Prigozhin, are traitors.
Wiped from memory
“Prigozhin made a considerable contribution in the battle against Ukrainian nationalists,” Vladimir Dzhabarov, a Russian senator, was cited as saying by Russian outlet News.ru on Friday. “But in times of conflict the head of a mercenary group does not have the right to commit such an act,” he added.
Most Russian media, however, simply ignored the anniversary of Prigozhin’s death, part of a general Kremlin effort to wipe his name from public memory.
But some Russians, it appears, have not forgotten.
On Friday, many brought flowers and candles to his grave in St. Petersburg and to makeshift memorials across Russia.