Yevgeny Prigozhin, boss of the Wagner Group military company, arrives for a funeral at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, April 8, 2023.
Associated Press
Tensions have arisen between the Kremlin and the head of Russia’s private military company Wagner Group this week, as President Vladimir Putin appeared to take sides in a long-running public dispute between Russian mercenaries and the Defense Ministry.
It is well known that the outspoken Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Russian Ministry of Defense have not broken up; Prigozhin has publicly and repeatedly criticized the ministry’s most senior officials, including Defense Minister Sergei Igou, a vocal critic of Russia’s military strategy in Ukraine.
He also accused senior defense officials of betraying and deliberately withholding ammunition from the Wagner Group, which has been fighting for months in Bahmut, the center of intense hostilities in Ukraine.
Prigozhin has been careful not to engage in any public criticism of the Kremlin and Putin, and is one of the president’s longtime partners and supporters.
But now there appear to be tensions between Prigozhin and the Russian leadership, putting his relationship with the Russian president in jeopardy.
While Wagner has its uses in Ukraine (and, arguably, has been able to make some inroads where the Russian regular army doesn’t), the Russian Ministry of Defense has been keen to curb the group’s influence, especially that of Prigozhin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre) with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (right) and Commander-in-Chief Valery Gerasimov (left) after a meeting of the Russian Ministry of Defense Council on December 21, 2022 chat.
Mikhail Klimentiev | AFP | Getty Images
On Saturday, Shoigu announced that “volunteer army organizations” and private military companies must sign contracts directly with the ministry by July 1, the latest move to curb mercenary groups.
“This will provide voluntary organizations with the necessary legal status, creating common approaches to organize overall support and fulfillment of their missions,” the ministry claims. According to the state news agency TASS.
Prigozhin reacted to the announcement with characteristic provocation, saying on Sunday that “Wagner will not enter into any contract with Shoigu,” adding that the order does not apply to the Wagner group.
But on Tuesday, Putin explicitly backed the move to sign contracts with private military companies, The president said he wanted the law changed to legalize their activities.
“This is the only way to ensure social security (for mercenary fighters), because (currently) there is no contract with the state, and there is no contract with the Ministry of Defense,” Putin told a group of war correspondents.
Notably, despite Putin’s comments, Prigozhin again refused to sign any contracts, saying on Wednesday that “when we started participating in this war, no one said we were obliged to make an agreement with the Ministry of Defense,” he telegraphed According to Google Translate.
He added, “None of the Wagner PMC fighters are ready to go down the path of disgrace again. So no one will sign the contract.”
Prigozhin unstable place
Prigozhin has said he believes a compromise can be found that would avoid a contract with the Defense Ministry, but analysts say the mercenary boss cannot stand amid his apparent disdain for Putin.
The MoD commented on the escalation of tensions on Thursday, noting that “Wagner & Company owner Yevgeny Prigozhin has been making acrimonious criticism of the MoD (MoD) hierarchy for months, but heeding Putin’s mandate.”
Now, it notes, “Prigozhin’s rhetoric is turning into contempt for the broader sector of the Russian establishment.” It warns that July 1 — the deadline for volunteers to sign contracts — “could be the crux of the dispute.” Turning point.”
Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin attends the funeral of Wagner Group fighter Dmitry Menshikov who died during a special operation in Ukraine at the Beloostrovskoye Cemetery outside St. Petersburg, Russia, December 24, 2022.
Associated Press
Prigozhin has become an increasingly high-profile figure, entering independent Index of the Levada Center on Russian public trust in public figures First time in May – giving him a 4% rating. That puts him at the same level of trust as former President Dmitry Medvedev and Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.
Andrey Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Center for Russia-Eurasia, noted Wednesday that as his profile grows, he may find himself increasingly vulnerable and seen as a possible challenge to Putin.
“Prigozhin is playing independence politics, raising the stakes and testing the sensibilities of the system as he goes. But this is only possible as long as this shaven-headed scary kid is useful to Putin, both technically and physically,” Kolesnikov said in a statement Comment Published in Carnegie Political Journal.
However, he noted, “In the current political system…Prigorzhin can only be opposed to the elite – and therefore popular – as long as he supports Putin. Boss Wagner needs the slightest sign of Putin from the information space (and other spaces) disappear,” he said.
Kolesnikov said that while Prigozhin represented “an emerging leader who can talk to the people without an intermediary, like a true populist leader,” “the only problem is that Russia There is already such a leader: President Vladimir Putin.”