MT: on the day of the coup, prigozhin planned to deliver a "shocking speech" in the state Duma

On June 23, 2023, the head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was going to speak at a roundtable in the State Duma of the Russian Federation with harsh criticism of the leadership of the Russian army.

Source. The Moscow Times writes about this with reference to its sources.

"He was going to voice all the darkness about the Airborne Forces, about the Ministry of Defense, how many casualties there are among our soldiers. In general, the whole **** [horror]. His aides were preparing his arrival," said one of the newspaper's interlocutors.

According to The Moscow Times' sources, Prigozhin hoped that in this way he would be able to attract the attention of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to whom he had lost access, and to gain his support in his confrontation with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Sergei Gerasimov.

According to a friend of Prigozhin's, his entourage seriously considered the possibility that he would come accompanied by the chief of the VKS, General Sergei Surovikin, who lost his post and fell out of favor after the Wagnerian mutiny.

In the spring, Prigozhin asked State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin for permission to speak from the rostrum, but was denied, so the head of the PMC hoped to get to the roundtable secretly with the help of his supporters in A Just Russia, a party source told the newspaper.

However, on June 22, the day before the scheduled speech, The Moscow Times learned that Prigozhin refused to participate in the event without explanation.

As you know, the Wagnerian riot, which began on the evening of June 23, lasted for a day, after which Prigozhin said that he had ordered it to be stopped by agreeing to relocate the PMC to Belarus. Two months later, the plane on which Prigozhin was traveling crashed.