承前*1
Andrew Roth “‘Yevgeny Prigozhin will never be discussed again’: Russian media to erase all traces of mutinous warlord” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/01/yevgeny-prigozhin-russian-media-erase-warlord-wagner-moscow
「プリゴジンの乱」のひとつの帰結。
イェフゲニー・プリゴジン率いる「ワグネル」は軍事事業（死体製造業）としてだけでなく、情報産業（フェイク・ニュース製造業）としても悪名を轟かせていた。しかし、乱の終息後、露西亜では情報空間から「ワグネル」或いはプリゴジンの存在の消去が始まっている。
また、
Instead, it is Prigozhin’s empire that will now crumble, ending a decade of his schemes and tricks doing some of the Kremlin’s dirtiest work.On Friday*2, Russia blocked the websites of the Ria Fan, Politics Today, Economy Today, Neva News and People’s News online media outlets, part of a constellation of online sites that pushed out fake news in support of Prigozhin’s agenda.
The St Petersburg-based outlet Rotunda also reported that Prigozhin’s Internet Research Agency, a troll factory where low-paid interns would try to sow anger and distrust by writing aggressive comments under news and social media posts, had also been closed down.
Prigozhin had for years denied that he was the founder of the organisation until earlier this year. “I’ve never just been the financier of the Internet Research Agency,” he said. “I invented it, I created it, I managed it for a long time. It was founded to protect the Russian information space from boorish aggressive propaganda of anti-Russian narrative from the west.”
In an extraordinary appearance, an editor from his Patriot media group defended the troll factory from its founding in 2009, saying that it “was strategically important to discredit the work of opposition journalists who were trying … to destroy our country”.
ところで、露西亜の富裕層にとって、プリゴジン或いはワグネルというのは、もしモスクワに進軍してきて略奪を始めたらどうするんだ？ という感じの脅威であって、今回、プーチンは事態を収拾してワグネルの脅威を除去したことによって、富裕層の支持を改めて固めたという説もある。
Long seen as plausibly deniable, he will now be simply ignored as the Russian government seeks to maintain his overseas mercenary empire and its influence in Africa while eliminating Prigozhin’s personal role.“Until the war and Bakhmut*3, we would rarely write about Prigozhin – he was seen as an unclear character, not anti-government but best not to touch,” said a former editor at a Russian state news agency, citing contacts with colleagues. “Now it is as though he never existed.”
“[Editors] are saying: ‘Right, we’ve addressed [the mutiny] but now we are going to get back to normal, and Prigozhin will never be discussed, definitely not on TV.’”
ただ、「ワグネル」が消えても、今や露西亜ではミニ「ワグネル」がいっぱいであるとも；
For some wealthy Russians, Prigozhin is now synonymous with the chaos of a potential battle for power in Russia. The Kremlin and its supporters claim that the mutiny actually consolidated Putin’s power because it showed that without him there could be a civil war.“When we saw the news on Saturday*4, we told our guards to just be ready to defend the place if needed,” one wealthy Rublyovka*5 resident told the Observer. “Prigozhin is crazy – he is the worst and capable of anything. He always talks about Rublyovka and how much he hates it. He would probably come to us first.”
Many of Prigozhin’s tactics, from online social sabotage to recruiting convicts from prisons, have since been adopted by the Russian government. Numerous state corporations and even private businesspeople sponsor their own small mercenary groups now.
*1:https://sumita-m.hatenadiary.com/entry/2023/06/26/163541 https://sumita-m.hatenadiary.com/entry/2023/06/27/120600 https://sumita-m.hatenadiary.com/entry/2023/06/28/100452
*2:６月29日。
*3:See Julian Borger "Wagner chief warns of revolution and says 20,000 fighters killed in Bakhmut" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/24/wagner-head-warns-of-revolution-after-claiming-20000-fighters-killed-in-bakhmut
*4:６月24日。
*5:モスクワの高級住宅街。
