Vladimir Putin’s Chef: The War in Ukraine and the Prigozhin’s “Putin’s Cook” with the Wagner Group
On Sunday, the mood in Russia appeared to be calmer than it had been a day before, thanks to the actions of the Wagner Group.
The mercenary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin marched to the outskirts of Moscow before Prigozhin warned that “the moment has arrived when blood could be spilt” and ordered his forces to turn back.
Nicknamed “Putin’s chef,” Prigozhin was once a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the Wagner Group has been an indispensable part of Russia’s military engagements in Ukraine and other parts of the world, including Africa and South America.
But Alperovitch stressed that the saga is not yet over. A weakened Putin will be left to respond to the failed rebellion, he said, and Prigozhin has yet to make any public comments since the Kremlin announcement that he was going to Belarus.
It’s not clear if Russia could afford to shut down the group that helped it achieve gains in its war against Ukraine. The private military company took control of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut last month.
Prigozhins accused the Russian military’s top brass of bungling the war effort in Ukraine and also claimed that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and others were withholding weapons out of bitterness.
Shoigu stated that members of private military companies would have to sign contracts with the military by July 1.
What is next-explained-prigozhin? The reaction of Putin to the theater of the July 1 march in Ukranian
The co-founder and chairman of the think tank said that it was likely Shoigu’s order that caused Prigozhin to organize the march.
“Prigozhin said that he would not obey it, and clearly as the clock was ticking toward July 1, he was desperate to try to think of ways to stop that order,” Alperovitch said.
Other Russia experts believed that Prigozny’s attempt to gain more resources was a bid to increase his influence over the military strategy in Ukranian.
The Russian leadership was clearly thrown off balance because of the theatrical rebellion he staged. Andrew Weiss, a vice president at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told NPR that they did not think anyone would challenge Putin’s authority.
The Kremlin said that those who took part in the march would not be prosecuted, and those who weren’t would sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Others say the Wagner Group gives Putin and other officials deniability, and turning a blind eye to the losses suffered by the mercenaries allows Russia to hide the true costs of war.
The US Treasury Department slapped sanctions against the organization for its role in the war in Ukraine.
Weiss said that Putin created a monster that was “a bit of a Frankenstein monster for himself” in theWagner Group, an organization with more autonomy than the military.
The Russian media outletRTVI was told on Sunday that Prigozhin would take questions once he got better cellphone reception.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/25/1184237150/russia-wagner-putin-whats-next-explained-prigozhin
The PRIGOZHIN SPOKE IN THE WAVER GROUP AND THE RUSSIAN MULTIPARTICLE CONFERENCE
Weiss said that theWagner Group could continue to play a role in the war in Ukraine, where the mercenaries have conducted operations against Ukrainian military forces.
Alperovitch suggested that there had been “minimal impact” on the war in Ukraine following the Wagner march on Moscow and noted that Prigozhin himself said operations would continue despite his spat with the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“Prigozhin is still there. The person says that it’s still Wagner. There’s a lot of arms. The Russian ministry of defense has shown themselves to be incapable of defending Russian territory.
We need to watch what Prigozhin says and where he goes in the coming days, and we need to take note of what he says and where he goes.
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