An audio recording of a phone conversation allegedly between prominent Russian music producer Iosif Prigozhin (unrelated to the Wagner leader) and billionaire Farhad Akhmedov has sparked outrage among Russian elites. The two men therefore express far-reaching criticism of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.
It is probably a tapped telephone conversation that was posted on YouTube a month ago, but only started to go viral on Friday when a Ukrainian channel published the recording, writes ‘The Moscow Times’.
The unusually candid discussion between Prigozhin and Akhmedov sheds a light on what the mood is like among Russia’s elites today. And that turns out to be far from good.
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Putin doesn’t care about anything. And he doesn’t give a damn about the people. He’s goddamn Satan
“Putin doesn’t care about anything. And he doesn’t give a damn about the people. He’s goddamn Satan. A wimp,” says one of the two rich men. Putin has also been described as a “dwarf with a Napoleon complex”.
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They screwed up. All
“They screwed up. All,” complains Akhmedov. “Putin said, ‘As long as we have the army, everything is fine.’ Only it turned out: the army did not exist.”
“Putin is responsible. They shed the blood of innocent people.”
“They have ruined the future of the country,” Prigozhin is said to say. “Putin gave the country away. And we have nowhere to go.”
“How are we going to clean up all this later? There will be fascism, a military dictatorship. You will see it. This is how it will end,” says a voice, after which his interlocutor agrees.
Music producer Iosif Prigozhin and his wife, pop singer Valeria, have long been ardent supporters of Vladimir Putin and even campaigned for him during the 2018 elections, according to The Moscow Times.
Farhad Akhmedov, a Russian billionaire of Azerbaijani descent, made his living in Siberia’s gas industry in the 1990s and served as a Russian senator from 2004 to 2009. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Akhmedov faced Western sanctions and now lives in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
It is difficult to verify whether the recording is authentic. Prigozhin, for his part, first – unsurprisingly – declared on Telegram that the audio recording was “fake”. However, later speaking to the Russian news site ‘Fontanka’, he admitted that the recording was partially authentic, while the rest of the conversation was fabricated.
The independent investigative platform ‘Important Stories’, which currently operates from abroad, concluded Monday that the leaked recording may be authentic, citing a source at the Russian secret service FSB.
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