A year after Prigozhin’s death, the Kremlin is humiliated again – POLITICO

Meanwhile, as the war escalates, the Russian propaganda machine is seizing 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 greater the threat, the more Russians must remain united and that those who do not, like Prigozhin, are traitors.

Erased from memory

“Prigozhin made a significant contribution to the fight against Ukrainian nationalists,” Russian Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov was quoted as saying by the Russian website News.ru on Friday. “But in times of conflict, the leader of a mercenary group has no right to commit such an act,” he added.

Most Russian media, however, simply ignored the anniversary of Prigozhin’s death, as part of a general effort by the Kremlin to erase his name from public memory.

But some Russians, it seems, have not forgotten this.

On Friday, many people brought flowers and candles to his grave in St. Petersburg and to makeshift memorials across Russia.