Des Russes rendent hommage à Evguéni Prigojine : "Nous aurions dû l'enterrer avec les honneurs"

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was laid to rest in a St. Petersburg cemetery on Tuesday. On Wednesday, a number of Russians turned out to bid him farewell. In Moscow, an impromptu memorial also attracted a large number of devotees.

The low-key funeral of Wagner's leader on Tuesday August 29 in a suburban cemetery in St. Petersburg resembled that reserved for traitors. Yevgeny Prigozhin did not receive the guard of honor to which his title of Hero of Russia would normally entitle him. And the government media barely relayed the news of his funeral.

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So the message was clear. Despite this, many Russians came to pay their respects to Yevgeny Prigozhin, and in a Russia where speech is totally muzzled, this could almost pass for rebellion. The day after the funeral, on Wednesday August 30, there was a queue outside Yevgeny Prigozhin's grave, and a traffic jam several kilometers long formed on the outskirts of the cemetery where he was buried. It's a small, bucolic cemetery in the suburbs, where his father was already buried, away from the big cemeteries in Petersburg where everyone expected him to be buried.

In this cemetery, as in Moscow, in front of the improvised memorial in a street a few steps from the Kremlin, the Russians who come to pay their respects tend to be among the most nationalistic and pro-war. Andrei, for example, comes to lay flowers in front of the memorial: "He was a hero. To his credit, he led people to their deaths and people followed him. Anybody couldn't do that. Anybody else would say, 'Let's go,' and they wouldn't follow. This man had such leadership qualities that he could take people along. Not everyone can do that.Alors qu'Evguéni Prigojine a été enterré dans un cimetière à Saint-Pétersbourg le 29 août 2023, des hommages lui sont aussi rendus à Moscou. (SYLVAIN TRONCHET / RADIOFRANCE)

Wagner group cap on his head, Izmail, only 16 years old, tells how he had started the process of joining the mercenary company. He didn't like the fact that the funeral was held in secret on Tuesday August 29 in St Petersburg. It's not right," he says. I think we should have buried Evgeny Prigogine publicly and with honors. I think he was buried in such a way as not to cause any unnecessary fuss. You in our

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"I really feel like I've lost hope, the hope of truth, of justice. I saw in him a Russian warrior who, despite all the obstacles, goes towards the truth and towards ordinary people. For me, he's a defender of the common people", continues this woman.

In their own words, these Russians have come to say that they have no confidence in their army or in the government. However, this opposition has nothing to do with the liberals, who are subjected to repression by the authorities and are mercilessly hunted down. No one in this camp wants the war to end - quite the contrary.

Autour d’un mémorial improvisé, les mots sont rares. Partisans and onlookers alike understand the need to keep a low profile and wait for better, or brighter, days.

An improvised memorial on a street near the Kremlin to commemorate the members of the Wagner military group, who died when their plane crashed on August 23, in Moscow, August 26, 2023An improvised memorial on a street near the Kremlin to commemorate the members of the Wagner military group, who died when their plane crashed on August 23, in Moscow, August 26, 2023. ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / AP

Near Red Square, in the center of the improvised memorial in front of the Church of St. Maximus the Blessed, the three faces form a kind of holy trinity. They are Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner group, who died on August 23 in the crash of his plane; Dmitri Outkin, "Wagner" by his nom de guerre, admirer of the Third Reich and founder of the militia, who died with his boss; and the composer Richard Wagner, who died in 1883. There's no doubt about it, we're in the middle of nowhere.

Here, in Moscow's hypercentre invaded by Russian tourists and luxury cars, the men who come to pay their respects recognize each other at a glance. Big arms, serious faces, fighting looks. Each one adds his own touch, his own tribute: flowers by the dozen, here the portrait of a brother in arms, there a bulletproof vest, a piece of bread on a vodka glass, cigarettes, the flag of a unit...