The power struggle between Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russia’s military has escalated. There is a lot at stake for the Wagner boss.
They are notorious for their ruthlessness – not only towards the enemy, but also towards the civilian population and even their own people: the mercenaries of the Russian military company Wagner. So far they have fought side by side with the Russian army in the Ukraine – high losses were accepted. How many mercenaries are in action is not exactly known. The US government estimates their number at 50,000 and has imposed sanctions on what is classified as a “major transnational criminal organization”.
The Russian government, which has long publicly kept its distance from the Wagner Group, has so far accused the United States of demonizing it for no reason. Its founder and boss, the businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, first publicly admitted in September that he had anything to do with the Wagner Group. According to him, he founded it in 2014. He explained that it was far more than a mercenary force. Even before the most recent development, there were increasing signs that the government wanted to curb its influence.
“Conquest of Soledar”
Prigozhin is a wealthy Russian businessman who was said to be close to President Vladimir Putin. He is often called “Putin’s chef” because he once ran a restaurant in St. Petersburg where Putin used to dine. To reduce him to that would be to underestimate him. Some commentators even thought that Prigozhin was the future defense minister. It was always questionable whether Putin would really have repudiated his longtime minister Sergei Shoigu – especially since it was not until mid-January that Chief of Staff Valeri Gerasimov, a close friend of Shoigu, became commander-in-chief of the Ukraine mission.
Prigozhin and Putin: One leads a mercenary army, the other Russia. (Source: Alexei Druzhinin)
It has always remained unclear how much influence Prigozhin actually had in Putin’s entourage. But he hasn’t shied away from taking on the military and the Department of Defense in the past. In mid-January he announced that his men had taken Soledar – the small town near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine known for its vast salt deposits.
While the Presidential Office praised the “heroic, selfless deeds” of the fighters in Soledar, the Department of Defense attributed the victory to its own troops. Prigozhin complained furiously that Russian employees did not show enough respect for his units. Hours later, the ministry responded with a “clarifying statement” acknowledging that Wagner fighters had conquered Soledar with their “brave deeds”. Prigozhin promptly awarded his fighters medals commemorating the “conquest of Soledar”.
Government curtails Prigozhin’s influence
For this, Prigozhin was also ridiculed. Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former intelligence operative who helped unleash the 2014 war in Donbass, accused Prigozhin of being flippant about the lives of his men. Girkin poked fun at the fact that Prigozhin awards medals for capturing a “big village”. In addition, Gerasimov is a threat to Prigozhin, because he will prevent any resistance to Shoigu. If Putin does not intervene on his behalf, “Prigozhin will be thrown out of both the political and the military arenas.”
The politicians didn’t want to let Prigozhin into politics, said Sergei Markov, a former government adviser who is still close to the government. “They’re a bit scared of him and think he’s uncomfortable.” Prigozhin’s downfall is not imminent, wrote Russia expert Tatiana Stanovaya in an article for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace at the time. However, his ties to the presidential office had begun to crumble. The politicians don’t like Prigozhin’s threat to found their own party.
Sergei Markov: He is a former deputy for Putin’s United Russia party and an eloquent spokesman for the Kremlin. (Source: imago stock&people)
According to Markov, Prigozhin gave in – under appropriate pressure. “The message is: We will provide you with military resources, but do not get involved in politics for the time being,” said Markov. Prigozhin himself assured in an interview at the time that he did not criticize anyone and had no political ambitions. A few days before the anniversary of the beginning of the war, however, he again went on a confrontational course: he accused Shoigu and Gerasimov of having deprived his fighters of ammunition. They would have tried to destroy Wagner. “That amounts to high treason.”
