Russian authorities said that all ten persons on board the jet were killed. Prigozhin led a failed rebellion against Vladimir Putin in June this year.
New Delhi: Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group that led a failed rebellion against Vladimir Putin in June this year, was on board a private jet that crashed in Russia with no survivors on Wednesday, August 23, according to Russian aviation authorities.
Russian state media agency TASS reported that the Federal Agency for Air Transport of Russia (Rosaviatsiya) has initiated an investigation of the crash of the Embraer plane that happened in the Tver Region on Wednesday. The name Yevgeny Prigozhin was included in the list of passengers of the crashed flight, TASS said.
“An investigation of the Embraer plane crash that happened in the Tver Region this evening was initiated. According to the passenger list, first and last name of Yevgeny Prigozhin was included in this list,” Rosaviatsiya said.
While unconfirmed reports said the jet belonged to the Wagner chief, it was not immediately clear if the 622-year-old Prigozhin was on the plane when it crashed.
According to the BBC, a Wagner-linked Telegram channel had reported that the jet was “shot down by air defences” in the Tver region that is north of Moscow.
⚡️ Самолёт, который разбился в Тверской области, принадлежит Евгению Пригожину, утверждают издание Baza и журналистка Ксения Собчак. На борту бизнес-джета Embraer, как утверждается, были 7 человек, они погибли.
TASS had earlier reported that the Embraer aeroplane was on the way from Sheremetyevo to St. Petersburg. “There were three pilots and seven passengers on board. All of them died,” it said.
The incident occurred near Kuzhenkino. “Emergency response services have told TASS that four bodies have been found. The plane reportedly caught fire after hitting the ground and burned up. It had been in flight less than 30 minutes,” the report said.
Mercenaries of the Wagner Group, a private military contractor, were deployed by Russian forces in the invasion of Ukraine, but the relationship between Prigozhin and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu was thorny. Tensions came to a head after the Wagner chief claimed that a base occupied by his troops was attacked by Russia’s military and on June 23, he began to drive a convoy away from Ukraine and into Russia.
After seizing the Southern Military District headquarters at Rostov-on-Don, Prigozhin marched towards Moscow. Russian President Putin’s warning to “traitors” was hit back by Wagner that there would “be a new Russian president soon”.
As the Wagner convoy was only a couple of hours from the Kremlin, a compromise was brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on June 24. Prighozin received safe passage to Minsk and treason charges against Wagner fighters were dropped. The mercenaries were also integrated into the Russian military.
Until the rebellion, Prighozin was considered a close ally of Putin and even ran “troll factories” that praised the Kremlin and attacked critics.
Note: This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available.
Samuel Huntington’s bizarre thesis that the world was divided into irreducible identities based on “civilisations” received a boost after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Unfortunately, these superficial differences hide far more than they reveal.
As the Wagner Group marched towards Moscow, it was striking that not one American or European newspaper spoke of the January 6, 2021 attacks by pro-Trump rioters on Washington DC in the same breath. If Vladimir Putin’s rule has been threatened by the action of a mercenary captain, American leadership was rocked when its elected members of Congress had to flee for their lives. The fact that the principal instigator is a former US President and is the presumptive leading opposition candidate for next year’s elections highlights that the instability is far from over.
No comparison is perfect, and there are multiple differences between the US and Russia, but these striking actions demonstrate that one of the principal vectors of conflict is the clash within civilisations, not between them.
Samuel Huntington’s bizarre thesis that the world was divided into irreducible identities based on “civilisations” received a boost after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Huntington had predicted that Ukraine, as a “cleft” country, divided by civilisational differences between its eastern and western parts, would be a key flashpoint. With China, a “civilisational state”, and Russia being presented as one side of the conflict, and NATO being on the other, Huntington’s hypothesis seems almost prophetic.
Unfortunately, these superficial differences hide far more than they reveal. It is striking that the biggest apologists of Putin’s actions have come from the self-described defenders of the US’s “White Christian civilisation”. This runs the range from people like Tucker Carlson, recently fired from Fox News, to Trump stating that Putin’s moves were “genius”, and what a smart man the Russian leader was.
Within NATO states themselves, the starkest differences are between two eastern European states that border Ukraine: Poland and Hungary. Poland’s leadership has accused the EU of cowardice, singling out Germany in its vehement attacks about appeasing Putin. On the other hand, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban (also beloved of Fox News), has said Putin’s aims were “reasonable”, and has done everything except give outright support to Russia.
Once we zoom out of the war in Ukraine, the cleavages within Huntington’s “civilisations” become even more evident. The People’s Republic of China, one of the key actors in the conflict, has recently crushed the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and is threatening Taiwan, as well as Vietnam, both of which Huntington put squarely as part of the Sinic civilisational sphere. The conflicts across the Muslim world, which Huntington lumped together as one “civilisation”, totally ignoring the differences between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Syria, as well as a number of other major cleavages – both of denomination as well as strategic vision. Israel, which Huntington classified as a “lone civilisation”, but also part of “Western civilisation”, is seeing months of protests within the Jewish majority, its deepest ever cleavage, with the governing coalition portraying it as a civilisational battle against the judiciary. Last year, Germany saw the arrest of leaders of the Reichsburger movement. They were plotting a coup – based, of course, on the idea of civilisational conflict with the current state. And, of course, here in India, the great civilisational battle that the Sangh parivar is engaged with has – as its principal threat – the vision of Nehru, as well as – in reality – Ambedkar’s social vision, and Gandhi’s push for tolerance.
To a certain degree, a reading of the world as defined by civilisational borders is one of the principal reasons for some of these conflicts. Putin’s speech in which he delegitimised Ukraine as a sovereign state rested primarily on this argument. China’s claims on Taiwan are similarly based on the idea of one “civilisational state”, One China, under the mandate of heaven. The multiple conflicts between Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria rested – in part – on Erdogan’s expansionist claims of Turkey’s leadership of a neo-Ottoman “Muslim civilisation”.
Lastly, it is important not to forget that Huntington worked as an adviser to the apartheid regime in South Africa. In the end, that regime, sustained on a belief that different cultures should be separated and were separate civilisations that would be in conflict with each other, fell. There were many reasons for its demise, but maybe one of the most important was that there is no such thing as irreducible civilisational difference unless we make war in its name. It is only by maligning and killing each other in the name of “different civilisations” that we erect borders of blood. Seeing Ukraine as a civilisational fight between the “East and the West” helps us understand nothing, and obscures the fact that the real fight remains about liberty, democracy, decency, and equal rights. These are endangered across “civilisations”, and yet every human being has a claim to them.
Wagner group fighters have left the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and are headed back to their field camps, reports say.
US spy agencies had predicted that Yevgeny Prigozhin was preparing to rise up against the Kremlin, the Washington Post and New York Times reported.
US intelligence officials conducted briefings at the White House, the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill a day before the unrest began.
The Washington Post said that spy agencies first began examining signs that Prigozhin was planning to move against the Russian military leadership in mid-June.
The New York Times said that the information was both solid and alarming by the middle of the week.
Germany’s Baerbock shortens South Africa visit over Wagner conflict
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has shortened a trip to South Africa due to the conflict which occurred between the Wagner mercenary group and the Kremlin.
Baerbock had been scheduled to head for Cape Town on Sunday afternoon, with the foreign minister also spending Monday there.
She will now attend a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday instead. Baerbock, however, is still expected to visit the South African city of Pretoria on Tuesday for talks.
Putin ‘humiliated’ by Wagner: Kyiv
Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has “humiliated” Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“You almost nullified Putin, took control of the central authorities, reached Moscow and suddenly … you retreat,” Podolyak said in a tweet, referring to Prigozhin.
He called Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who mediated a deal between Wagner and the Kremlin, a “very specific intermediary with a dubious reputation.”
Prigozhin's phenomenal choice… You almost nullified Putin, took control of the central authorities, reached Moscow and suddenly… you retreat. Because one very specific intermediary with a dubious reputation (#Lukashenko) promised security guarantees from the person (#Putin)…
Russian authorities have called for the arrest of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin amid claims of mutiny. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces said they were “watching” the situation unfold.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Saturday his troops are heading off to support the Kremlin against the armed uprising by the Wagner Group.
“Fighters from the Ministry of Defense and the National Guard of the Chechen Republic have already left for the tense areas. We will do everything to preserve Russia’s unity and protect its statehood,” Kadyrov posted on Telegram.
Earlier on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the nation, where he spoke of an armed “mutiny” and announced that he would punish those who rebel.
“I support every word of Vladimir Putin,” Kadyrov said.
Chechen fighters are currently deployed with the Russian military in the war against Ukraine and, until recently, were fighting alongside Wagner mercenaries.
Fuel depot on fire in Voronezh, UK says Wagner has sights on Moscow
A fuel depot was on fire in Russia’s southern city of Voronezh on Saturday, the local governor announced after Moscow said the army was leading “combat” in the region amid a mutiny from Wagner mercenaries.
Voronezh authorities are “extinguishing a burning fuel depot,” Governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram. “There are 100 firefighters and more than 30 vehicles at the scene,” he added, saying there were “no victims according to initial data.”
Some media have published a video showing a military helicopter in the area before an explosion.
Earlier on Saturday, Britain said the Wagner Group had crossed from Russian occupied parts of Ukraine to Russia in at least two locations, and had “almost certainly” occupied key security sites in Rostov-on-Don.
“Further Wagner units are moving north through Voronezh Oblast, almost certainly aiming to get to Moscow,” British intelligence said.
“With very limited evidence of fighting between Wagner and Russian security forces, some have likely remained passive, acquiescing to Wagner.”
Sunak urges ‘all parties’ to protect civilians
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called on “all parties” in Russia to protect civilians after the Wagner Group captured territory in Rostov and other regions.
“The most important thing I’d say is for all parties to be responsible and to protect civilians,” Sunak told the BBC in an interview.
“We’re keeping a close eye on the situation and how it’s evolving on the ground as we speak,” he added.
He also said he would speak with allies about the situation later on Saturday.
‘Russia’s weakness is obvious’: Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that the growing unrest in Russia is a result of its invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia’s weakness is obvious. Full-scale weakness,” he said in statement posted to social media after the Wagner Group captured territory in several Russian regions.
“The longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain, and problems it will have for itself later.”
Zelenskyy implied that Putin was unable to stop his troops from “fleeing and betraying when lift resists” in Ukraine.
Putin allies rally in support of Russian president
Some of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies rallied round in support of the Russian president on Saturday in the wake of the threat posed by the Wagner Group.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke to Putin by telephone and described the events in Russia as an internal affair while saying rule of law was necessary to maintain order.
The leader of Russia’s Orthodox Patriarch Kirill has called for “unity” and voiced support for Putin.
“Today, when our brothers are fighting and dying on the frontlines… any attempt to sow discord within the country is the greatest possible crime that has no justification,” Patriarch Kirill said in a statement. “I support the efforts of the head of the Russian state, aimed at not allowing turmoil in our country.”
Wagner leader hits back at Putin
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has responded to President Vladimir Putin’s “betrayal” comments, suggesting in fact that the mercenary group’s soldiers are Russian “patriots.”
“The president makes a deep mistake when he talks about treason,” Prigozhin said in an audio message.
Prigozhin also said that Wagner forces would not be “turning themselves in and confess at the order of the president, the FSB (security service) or anyone else. Because we don’t want the country to continue to live any longer in corruption, deceit and bureaucracy.”
Earlier on Saturday, Putin said Wagner fighters were traitors who must be punished.
Wagner assault ‘unprecedented’ in Russia
DW International Correspondent Roman Goncharenko said the reports of a Wagner Group mutiny could be a turning point for Russia.
“We’ve never seen anything like this in recent Russian history,” he said.
“Taking control of Rostov-on-Don, or at the least part of Rostov-on-Don where the headquarters of the Russian army is, is an unprecedented move and it shows how weak the Russian military is,” he added.
The Wagner Group has taken on semi-official military responsibilities since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but in recent months Yevgeny Prigozhin has turned against Putin and blamed Russia’s armed forces for losses on the battlefield.
“It is a gigantic experiment that (Putin) started by invading Ukraine, and now things are developing in a very bad direction for him,” Goncharenko said.
In an address early on Saturday, Putin made comparisons to how World War I led to revolution and civil war inside Russia in 1917.
“Putin is absolutely right to draw comparisons,” Roman Goncharenko said. “This is where Russia is heading now, but we are not there yet.”
Russia fighting for ‘its future,’ says Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to the Wagner Group’s rebellion, telling the nation it was facing its “toughest battle for its future.”
In an address to the country, Putin described Yevgeny Prigozhin’s actions — in calling for an uprising against the Kremlin — an “armed mutiny” and told the rebels they will face “inevitable punishment.”
Putin did admit the situation in Rostov-on-Don was “difficult” following Wagner claims it had seized control of the airport and army headquarters in the city near the Ukrainian border.
“There will be decisive measures taken on stabilizing the situation in Rostov-on-Don,” Putin told the nation.
Poland ‘monitors’ while UK says Russia facing ‘most significant challenge in recent times’
Britain’s defence ministry said in an intelligence update that “the coming hours” may be decisive as “to how this crisis plays out” as Russian security forces face a test of “loyalty” to the Kremlin over the “feud” between Wagner and Moscow’s military.
Meanwhile, on Saturday morning, Poland’s president held “consultations” with the prime minister and defence ministry about “the situation in Russia.”
“The course of events beyond our eastern border is monitored on an ongoing basis,” Andrzej Duda wrote on Twitter.
Russia will ‘guarantee safety’ of Wagner fighters who stop rebelling
The Russian army on Saturday said it would “guarantee the safety” of Wagner mercenaries who stop rebelling against the Russian government and its military.
“We are appealing to the fighters of assault squads of PMC Wagner. You were deceived into (Wagner chief’s Yevgeny) Prigozhin’s criminal venture and participation in an armed rebellion,” the army said in a statement. It called on the fighters to ask for help to return to “places of permanent deployment.”
“We ask you to show reason and get in touch with representatives of Russia’s defence ministry or law enforcement. We guarantee safety for all.”
Moscow declares state of emergency
The city of Moscow the capital’s region has declared a counterterrorism state of emergency against the backdrop of the armed uprising by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“In order to prevent possible terrorist attacks in the city and Moscow region, a regime of counterterrorism operations has been established,” Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee said on Saturday morning.
Armoured vehicles in front of parliament in Moscow
Armoured vehicles have appeared in the centre of Moscow in the wake of the power struggle between Wagner and the Kremlin.
“Security measures have been increased in Moscow, all important objects, such as organs of state power and objects of transport infrastructure, have been put under heightened guard,” the state news agency TASS reported.
Wagner chief claims he’s seized Rostov army HQ and airport
The head of the Wagner mercenary group says his troops have occupied key military objects in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, as Yevgeny Prigozhin ramps up his challenge to the Kremlin.
“Under our control are military objects of Rostov, including the airport,” Prigozhin said in a video released on Saturday morning.
He also claimed to have seized control of the army’s headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a city with a population of over 1 million near the border with Ukraine.
Prigozhin’s claims, however, could not be independently verified.
Unverified videos show soldiers in Rostov-on-Don
Following claims by Prigozhin that his Wagner forces had crossed from Ukraine into Russia and were on their way to the city of Rostov-on-Don, numerous videos began to appear on social media showing soldiers and tanks moving around inside the city.
Reuters was able to verify that the footage was of the police headquarters building, but could not say when it was taken.
Local news site 161.ru said that their correspondent has seen tanks and armored vehicles in the center of the city.
Rostov is the headquarters of the Russian Southern Military District, a key hub for Russian forces and close to the Ukrainian border.
The footage could not be verified and it was also not possible to determine whether the forces shown were Russian military or Wagner mercenaries.
Russia: Moscow mayor says ‘anti-terror’ measures in place in capital city
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said they were taking “anti-terrorist” measures to secure the Russian capital.
“In connection with the incoming information in Moscow, anti-terrorist measures aimed at strengthening security are being taken,” Sobyanin said on Telegram.
The feud between the Wagner Group and the Russian defence leadership escalated into a confrontation after the mercenary group called on members to support an armed rebellion against the military leadership.
Prigozhin: Russian helicopter that fired on ‘civilian column’ shot down
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner Group, said in his latest audio message that: “A helicopter just now opened fire at a civilian column. It has been shot down by units of [private military company] Wagner.”
Prigozhin’s short message was not independently confirmed by other sources. It was also unclear what he meant by a civilian column.
If true, fighting between Wagner mercenary forces and Russian military troops would mark a serious escalation in the clash between Prigozhin and the Kremlin.
Russia: Putin briefed on situation ‘around the clock’
Russian President Vladimir Putin is receiving regular updates on the situation, the Kremlin said.
“Security services, law enforcement agencies, namely, the defence ministry, the FSB, the Interior Ministry, the National Guard are reporting to the president constantly, around the clock,” Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Putin, was quoted as saying by Russian media outlets.
Putin has not yet made any comments on Prigozhin’s rant against high-level Russian officials and the progress of the war in Ukraine.
White House: Monitoring situation in Russia
US National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge said they were “monitoring the situation and will be consulting with allies and partners on these developments.”
Hodge added that US President Joe Biden had been briefed about the fast-moving situation in Russia.
Prigozhin: Ready to ‘go all the way’ as mercenary forces cross from Ukraine into Russia
Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces had crossed the border from Ukraine into Russia and that they were ready to go “all the way” in their challenge to the Russian military.
The Wagner chief said his forces had crossed the border into the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and added his men would destroy anyone who stood in their way.
Prigozhin’s claims have not been independently verified, nor has there been any video footage of Wagner troops crossing into Russia.
DW analyst: Russian forces may face off against Wagner troops
DW’s Russia analyst Konstantin Eggert said that “it’s a possibility” that Russian troops may end up facing off against Wagner mercenary forces.
Eggert said that the Kremlin has ordered the mobilization of the special police forces as well as the FSB state security agency.
“There will be forces that will, I think, eventually confront the Wagner group if they decide to go into battle,” he said. “But it still remains to be seen.”
Unverified reports on Telegram said that Prigozhin’s Wagner forces had crossed into Russia from Ukraine without any resistance from Russian border guards.
If Russian President Vladimir Putin does not appear on television soon to address the situation, “it will look really strange, it will look like weakness and I think that it will have a lasting effect on Putin’s regime no matter what the outcome of this particular crisis is,” Eggert said.
Russia: Ukraine taking advantage of spat to ready troops near Bakhmut
The Russian Defence ministry accused Ukrainian troops of taking advantage of the infighting between the Wagner group and the Russian military to prepare its troops for an assault on Bakhmut.
“Taking advantage of Prigozhin’s provocation to disorganize the situation, the Kyiv regime near the Bakhmut front is concentrating units… for offensive actions,” the ministry was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Russian forces declared control of Bakhmut in May, but Ukrainian forces have made it difficult for Russia to hold on to the city as they shape up a counteroffensive to take back territories.
Russia: Prigozhin could face up to 20 years in prison
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said on Telegram that Prigozhin’s actions could see him sentenced to 12 to 20 years behind bars.
The office said Prigozhin was charged under Article 279 of the Russian Criminal Code for organizing an armed insurrection. “His actions will be given a proper legal assessment,” it added.
How has Ukraine reacted?
Ukraine has said it is monitoring the infighting between Prigozhin and the Russian military leadership.
“We are watching,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said.
Russia: Prigozhin’s claims not based in fact
The Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee has criticized claims by Prigozhin regarding the alleged attack on Wagner forces.
“The allegations spread in the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin have no basis in fact. That is why the FSB has initiated criminal proceedings on the basis of these statements for calling for an armed coup,” the committee said.
Prigozhin, the outspoken leader of the Wagner Group, has feuded publicly with Russia’s defence heads for months, accusing them of battlefield failures in the war in Ukraine.
On Friday, the Wagner chief accused Russia’s military forces of striking and killing his mercenary forces.
Russia’s defence ministry has denied the claim.
Russia: FSB urges Wagner troops to ignore Prigozhin’s orders
The Russian Federal Security Service or the FSB has urged Wagner troops to ignore Prigozhin’s calls for resistance and urged them to detain the Wagner leader.
“Prigozhin’s statements and actions are in fact a call to start an armed civil conflict on the territory of the Russian Federation and a stab in the back to Russian servicemen fighting pro-fascist Ukrainian forces,” the FSB said.
Russian commander urges Wagner forces to obey military leadership
A deputy commander of Russia’s war on Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, called on Wagner members to not oppose military leadership.
“I urge you to stop,” Surovikin said in a video. “The enemy is waiting for the internal political situation to worsen in our country.”
“Before it is too late, it is necessary and it is needed to obey the will and order of the popularly elected President of the Russian Federation,” Surovikin added.
Putin aware of Prigozhin situation
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed of the situation regarding Prigozhin, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Peskov said “all necessary measures were being taken” after Prigozhin urged Russians to join him in resistance against Russian military leaders.
Prigozhin was a close friend of Putin and was once known as “Putin’s chef.” Although Prigozhin has been critical of the Russian military and its handling of the war in Ukraine, he has refrained from criticizing Putin by name.
Russia launches criminal probe into Wagner chief
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a criminal probe into Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin on Friday, accusing him of attempting a “mutiny.”
Earlier on Friday, Prigozhin accused the Russian military of attacking his forces in Ukraine.
“We were ready to make concessions to the defence ministry, surrender our weapons,” Prigozhin said in an audio message. “Today, seeing that we have not been broken, they conducted missile strikes at our rear camps. A huge number of our fighters, our comrades died.”
Russia has denied it attacked Prigozhin’s forces. Prigozhin has called on volunteers to join him after the alleged Russian attack.
“This is not a military coup. This is a march for justice,” Prigozhin said.
The video, posted to his department’s Twitter account, went viral for its, at times, word-for-word similarity to speeches made by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
Brazil’s culture secretary Roberto Alvim was removed from his post on Friday, a day after he posted a video that appeared to show him copy Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
The video, posted to his department’s Twitter account, went viral for its, at times, word-for-word similarity to speeches made by Goebbels.
“Brazilian art of the next decade will be heroic and it will be national … and imperative because it will be rooted in the urgent aspirations of our people, or it will be nothing,” theater director Alvim said in the video.
Goebbels told theater directors during the Nazi regime that: “German art of the next decade will be heroic, will be wildly romantic, will be objective and free of sentimentality, will be national with great pathos and equally imperative and binding, or else it will be nothing.”
– Comunico o desligamento de Roberto Alvim da Secretaria de Cultura do Governo. Um pronunciamento infeliz, ainda que tenha se desculpado, tornou insustentável a sua permanência.
“I reiterate our rejection of totalitarian and genocidal ideologies,” Bolsonaro added, repeating his government’s support for the Jewish community.
Alvim had previously defended accusations that he had emulated the Nazi ideologue as a “rhetorical coincidence” and called the similarity an “unintentional error.”
The article was originally published on DW. You can read it here.
Donald Trump has been accused of using a ‘fascist’ Puccini aria at rallies but to label this music as ‘fascist’ is too easy and simplistic.
Claims that the Trump campaign uses fascist music are far-fetched and backed by slim evidence.
Trump’s use of a Puccini aria has caused some raised eyebrows. Credit: Michael Reynolds/EPA.
Certain musicians or pieces of music, for one reason or another, will always carry unsavoury associations. Wagner, whose music was co-opted by the Nazi party, is the obvious example. The overture of his opera ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’ was featured in a Nazi propaganda film. And there are many other examples of music that have been performed to great acclaim in societies that have conventionally been labelled fascist and as a result will be seen as tainted.
Some of the composers also have questionable personal histories. Luigi Dallapiccola, for example, was an explicit fascist sympathiser at least early on in Mussolini’s regime. Arthur Honegger cultivated contacts with the German occupying forces in France and was viewed by some as a collaborator. George Enescu was a sympathiser of Octavian Goga, Romania’s fascist and fundamentalist anti-semite prime minister between 1937-38 (and who had proposed Enescu for election to the Romanian Academy in 1933), and conducted special German nationalist concerts.
But to simply label these as all ‘fascist’ is too easy and certainly simplistic. Some pieces have found favour in markedly non-fascistic social contexts, some strongly resemble other work produced in other types of societies or by anti-fascist or communist composers. Other composers had explicit fascist sympathies (such as Webern, who praised Mein Kampf and wrote to a friend in 1940 of his dream of a German Empire which would stretch to the Pacific, or Stravinsky) but found their work denounced or even censored by fascist politicians.
Enter Donald Trump
The ‘fascist music’ argument reared its ugly head most recently in a Slatearticle in which Brian Wise argued for a fascist reading of Donald Trump’s appropriation at political rallies of Puccini’s ‘Nessun dorma‘, an aria from the opera Turandot. The article exposes all the flaws in a too-easy labelling of certain composers or musical pieces as ‘fascist’ and therefore unsavoury. It does so by conflating an enormous and disparate set of links and connotations into an ugly – and untenable – whole.
Part of Wise’s argument is biographical and there’s not much to fault here. Puccini’s expression of qualified sympathy for Mussolini soon after the 1922 March on Rome is clearly documented, as is the fact that he met the dictator at least once before the composer’s death in November 1924. He also reluctantly accepted honorary Fascist Party membership and was made a senator of the realm in September 1924, a position he had coveted since before Mussolini’s assumption of power. Turandot, incomplete at the time of Puccini’s death, had a hugely successful premiere in Milan in 1926 that was attended by Mussolini, though subsequent performances were not frequent and it would not enter the standard repertoire until a later period.
Loose associations
But Wise then quotes some very generalised statements from musicologists to back up his argument.
First there’s Arman Schwartz, who has compared the opera’s setting to Rome in the 1920s. Schwartz also identifies the relationship between virile hero and heroine to be conquered as fascistic as well as the irrational and violent crowd. The first of these points is plausible but the second and third are found in numerous earlier 19th century operas (such as Bizet’s Carmen, Wagner’s Siegfried, Halévy’s La Juive, Donizetti’s Les Martyrs or Verdi’s Don Carlos, to name just a few). Turandot hardly stands out on this front.
Wise then cites musicologist Alexandra Wilson’s argument that the opera’s combination of appeals to modernity and tradition makes it a ‘fascist emblem’. But this, too, could be said of a huge amount of music from Mozart to Brahms and well beyond.
Then there’s conductor Leon Botstein’s claim that this ‘regressive, narcotic, illusionistic music’ provided no resistance to the regime. But evidence of musical works ever providing meaningful and productive resistance to dictatorial regimes is extremely slim. Furthermore, Botstein’s musical characterisation of Puccini’s music could equally apply to the work of Debussy, Ravel, Szymanowski, Scriabin, Richard Strauss, Florent Schmitt and many, many others.
Wise then cites Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, who alludes to high decibel levels and themes of domination and colonialism. Once again, these are both frequent and generic aspects of operatic traditions and such classification would make huge swathes of popular music fascist.
Aria to opera
As the above litany of references makes clear, such all-encompassing fascistic interpretations of this opera are problematic, as the most intelligent recent commentator on music in fascist Italy, Ben Earle, has shown.
And all of this ignores the fact that Trump only appropriates one brief aria from this opera and another from the earlier Gianni Schicci. Ironically, both are actually relatively conventional compared to other examples of Puccini’s volatile music. Notwithstanding their obvious passionate and sensuous qualities, the vocal writing is generally much smoother and steadier than in other more hysterical numbers or other musical passages. To read fascist implications into these arias on the basis of the rest of the operas makes little sense when there is a high likelihood that neither Trump nor his supporters will be aware of them in any case.
Research into the relationship between a long tradition of western art, music (and for that matter, popular and non-Western musics) and fascism is vital, though far from easy. Scholars have looked in the context of fascism at musical biography, work, reception, instrumentalisation, institutions, music teaching, journalism and scholarship with subtlety and nuance. Most cogently argue that the relationship between these things and their social context is complex and multifaceted.
There may indeed be fascist dimensions to Wagner, Trump’s music preferences, or even the 1990 World Cup (where Nessun dorma also played a central role), but it requires a good deal of rigorous investigation to demonstrate this. As such, to condemn Nessun dorma on such flimsy grounds is a lazy approach to investigation of the disturbing Trump phenomenon.
Ian Pace, Head of Performance and Lecturer in Music, City University London
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
