Details Of How Wagner Group Revolted Against Russia Emerge

Mutinous Russian mercenary fighters from the Wagner Group were making their way to the capital before their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin ordered them to return to base to avoid bloodshed.

This latest incident with Prigozhin in a months-long feud with Russia’s defence ministry over the fight in Ukraine was the biggest threat President Vladimir Putin has faced in his 22-year rule.

The group has been a key piece of Russia’s strategy in Ukraine, with Wagner forces being used to hold cities like Bakhmut. Prigozhin has sharply criticized Russian military leadership for weeks, calling top brass incompetent, even traitorous. He has also refused to sign a contract to cooperate with the Russian Defense Ministry.

Tensions between Russia’s defense ministry and Wagner escalated dramatically Friday when Prigozhin alleged that Russian forces had attacked Wagner field camps in eastern Ukraine. Late Friday, Prigozhin issued video taped remarks that appeared to call for a rebellion against Russian military leadership, but he was characteristically vague in defining his plans.

Russia Political Infighting

In this grab taken from video and released by Prigozhin Press Service on June 23, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the outspoken millionaire head of the private military contractor Wagner, speaks during his interview at an unspecified location.

Prigozhin said early Saturday that Wagner forces had left Ukraine for Russia and had reached the city of Rostov-on-Don, which is home to the Russian military headquarters for the southern region and oversees the fighting in Ukraine. In an intelligence meeting, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Prigozhin’s forces appeared to control the military headquarters.

Wagner boss, “Putin’s butcher,” says Russia at risk of facing “revolution”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the uprising “a stab in the back” in a televised address Saturday morning.

“All those who prepared the rebellion will suffer inevitable punishment,” Putin said. “The armed forces and other government agencies have received the necessary orders.”

What is the Wagner group?

The Wagner group is a group of entities that operate as a private military company, or PMC. These PMCs can be hired by governments for security or combat services.

They aren’t uncommon: The United States has used private military companies during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, there are differences between the commonly accepted definition of a PMC and Russia’s version of the companies.

“In NATO countries, in Western countries, the main logic behind using private contractors when it comes to security and defense policy has been the flexibility of resources,” said Dr. András Rácz, a Russian expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations. “However, on the Russian side, the logic has been different. Russia, from the beginning, perceived these companies as a way of exerting state power in a covert way.”

Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin?

As Wagner’s publicity has grown, so has that of its shadowy founder, Prigozhin. His work running a catering company with Kremlin contracts earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef,” but Prigozhin long denied any connection to the group before finally admitting to being its founder last year.

“Prigozhin is a mastermind of media and also is the mastermind of social media,” said Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, a public policy research based in Washington, D.C. “While Putin and his propagandists have been dominating the Russian television and traditional outlets, Prigozhin is innovative because he had weaponized a network of military correspondents, military correspondents and bloggers.”

Prigozhin is wanted by the FBI for “Conspiracy to Defraud the United States.” The federal law enforcement agency is offering a $250,000 award for information leading to Prigozhin’s arrest for allegedly overseeing the political and electoral interference of the St. Petersburg, Florida-based Internet Research Agency from 2014 to 2018. The agency, for which Prigozhin was the primary funder, worked to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the FBI alleged.

Prigozhin has criticized Russian military commanders as the country failed to make significant gains in Ukraine. Meanwhile, he has positioned himself as a hero.

“He knows that his key differentiator from the Kremlin propaganda is that level of criticism, level of honesty, you know, that things are not really going as well, and criticism sells,” Stepanenko said. “And I think that that’s the platform that he’s really trying to advance on and solidify himself as a prominent figure in Russia.”

(Tribune)

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