Prigozhin accuses Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike on field camps of Wagner mercenary troops, with a huge number of casualties....
For months, the outspoken millionaire head of the Wagner private military contractor bombarded Russia’s military leaders with expletive-ridden insults in a rift that has weakened the country’s forces amid the war in Ukraine.He accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering...
It was a startling turn of events in Moscow: After more than two decades of rigidly controlled rule by President Vladimir Putin, the worst infighting spilled out in the open among his top lieutenants. Until now, Prigozhin’s rants against the military leadership have been met with silence from Putin and the military. Some saw that failure to squelch the infighting as a sign of potential shifts in Russia’s political scene that sets the stage for more internal battles.
That rift with the military escalated sharply Friday, with his accusation that Shoigu had targeted Wagner forces. Prigozhin said his men were embarking on a mission to punish the military leaders who ordered the strike and urged the army not to offer resistance, saying his troops would fire at any military checkpoints trying to stop them and down any attacking aircraft.
While there are no indications Putin is losing influence, “there are growing signs of deep dysfunction, anxiety, worry about the war and real problems in marshaling the resources necessary to fight it effectively,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
In another recent video, Prigozhin made a statement that some have interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on Putin himself. He declared that while his men were dying due to the Defense Ministry’s failure to supply ammunition, a “happy granddad is thinking he’s doing well,” and then referred to that “granddad” with an obscenity.
Putin has needed Prigozhin’s mercenaries at a time when the regular military is still recovering from setbacks earlier in the war. The Wagner chief’s position was bolstered after his private army captured Bakhmut last month in the war’s longest and bloodiest battle, relying on tens of thousands of convicts who were promised pardons if they survived six months of fighting.
Mark Galeotti, a London-based expert on Russian politics and security, speculated in a recent podcast that Putin’s failure to resolve political disputes could be rooted in a lack of interest, a focus on other issues or, more likely, a reluctance to take sides. Kadyrov’s lieutenants went further, blasting Wagner’s efforts in Bakhmut after Prigozhin made dismissive comments about Chechen fighters in Ukraine. Kadyrov’s right-hand man, Magomed Daudov, bluntly said Prigozhin would have been executed for such statements during World War II.
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