CNN
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Russian oligarch Evgeny Prigozhin is fighting his own war in eastern Ukraine, but is often crude and increasingly vocal in Russia’s Moscow military campaign.
While he markets himself and his Wagner mercenary group as true patriots, in contrast he mocks them as corrupt and incompetent military hierarchies. The language gets tougher and the stakes higher.
In recent weeks, Prigozhin has been seen near the front lines in the occupied eastern region of Donetsk, delivering oranges to troops, scrutinizing body bags, and engaging combatants in plain and sometimes brutal language. was seen
He rarely misses an opportunity to swipe at an institution. Somewhere in Donetsk last week, Prigozhin told his warriors: On New Year’s Eve, everyone drinks champagne. ”
Prigozhin thinks the chief official is Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. This two of him seemingly fell out over a lucrative military contract given to, and then taken away from, Prigogine’s Concord his group and Wagner’s role in the controversial Syria.
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The Ukraine conflict provided Prigogine with the opportunity to expand Wagner and declare public ownership of the group. Prigozhin said last week on his Telegram channel: Therefore, all responsibility for success or failure is on me. ”
After breaking into the limelight last fall, Prigogine has contrasted his fighter’s raw bravery with Shoigu’s uninspired leadership and command of the army. When a rapid Ukrainian counterattack forced a Russian retreat after the Kharkov debacle in September, Prigozhin said in a telegram channel that the high command would fight “barefoot with machine guns on the front lines”. He said that he should be forced to
Shoigu has not been seen on the front lines and has been widely criticized for the failure of Russia’s so-called “special military operation”. faced unusual public criticism for his death.
In contrast, Prigozhin even made fun of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he came to Bakhmut last month.
“Maybe I’ll see you by evening,” he said in a telegram. “I will sit and wait for you near Bahmut.”
Prigogine also responded to reports of Wagner being designated a terrorist organization by the United States: Wagner PMC, American, don’t wake me up while I’m still asleep. ”
Prigogine and Wagner have played rare informal roles in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. He has known the president since his 1990s. Both are from St. Petersburg. He won lucrative contracts as a Kremlin caterer and later founded the Russian Troll Farm known as the Internet Research Institute. Its mission was to interfere in the 2016 US election.
But Prigozhin, who was reportedly imprisoned in the 1980s, has always been an “anti-oligarch” and has his own mercenary operations in various hotspots in Syria and Africa. It has sought to acquire lucrative mineral concessions by hiring homes and combining training missions in places such as the Central African Republic. For Prigogine, Wagner is a way to make money and gain influence. For the Kremlin, such operations are a way of writing off certain things.
Above all, Prigozhin is a sharp-eyed opportunist. The Ukrainian conflict gave him and Wagner an opportunity to raise their profile and bring into the conflict an element they thought was missing in the Russian army: effective infantry.
Wagner enlisted in the first Russian army in the town of Popasna in the spring, then moved to Donetsk territory when the Ukrainian army withdrew in the summer and returned to its present front.
Russian forces have failed to record any territorial gains in the past six months, so for Prigozhin, capturing Bakhmut or Soledar, two towns in Donetsk that have been under attack for months, was a glorious prize. and another chance to overshadow Shoigu.
Prigogine said on Friday that it was his army “exclusively” that reportedly profited around Soledar recently. He added: “Bakhmut is the heart of the Eastern Front and an important logistics center. And our task is to kill as few people as possible there and destroy the enemy as much as possible.”
In filming his interactions with fighters, Prigogine asked provocatively.
“Nobody else!” they replied.
On Tuesday, Prigozhin made a point as his fighter appeared to dominate some of Soledar.
“A detachment of Wagner PMCs controls the entire territory of Soledar. .
The Ukrainian military continues to deny that Soledar has fallen, and even Prigozhin admits fighting continues.
(It may not be a coincidence that the Soledar region has large reserves of gypsum, a mineral used in the production of fertilizer and plaster. It often seeks to leverage its military presence, and there have been several Wagnerian operations in Syria, which have focused on valuable oil and gas fields.)
Prigozhin’s ambitions haven’t gone unnoticed in Washington, DC. “Recently, we’ve seen Wagner advancing faster than any other unit in the Russian military,” US Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper said at a briefing on Friday.
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Wagner’s campaign is brutal and basic. Prigogine and his lieutenant last year searched Russian prisons and made a candid offer. The plan was to fight in Ukraine for six months and get an amnesty in exchange for going back inside. Prison advocacy groups say the unusual deal has been blessed by the Kremlin, with more than 30,000 combatants likely joining Wagner’s ranks.
Prigogine himself addressed a group of prisoners, saying that Wagner did not allow alcohol, drugs, “anything like local women, plants, animals, sexual contact with men.” News outlets have revealed that he is meeting with former inmates convicted of crimes, including murder. they say “born again” I decided to sign up for another 6 months.
He said goodbye to others who had won pardons. “They performed the contract with honor and dignity,” he said. And he said to them in typical slang:
Prigogine is not afraid of bad news and does not spoil the Russian campaign. In a video circulated last week through his own media outlet, his FAN, he is seen reviewing black body bags piled up in an undisclosed location.
“They died heroically,” he said. However, he also sounded woefully disinterested, adding, “Their contracts have ended. They’re going home next week.”
It is not known how many Wagner contractors were killed, but losses certainly numbered in the hundreds with what the Ukrainians called Bakhmut’s “meat grinders”.
Surrounded by Wagnerian fighters, Pregogin Said Earlier this month, I told Telegram that the Ukrainian army was turning every house into a fortress. “So the men are fighting over all the houses…sometimes over one house for weeks.”
“How many (Ukrainian) defensive lines are there? 500 is about right?” Prigozhin added.
Russian state media recently began covering Prigogine’s appearance on the front lines. currency exchange His men say they are short on vehicles, ammunition and armored personnel carriers.
A few days later, Prigozhin’s Concord Group said in a statement that his Patriot Media had been asked to publish a negative article about him, but did not specify who made the request. Through his press service, he suggested, “People in uniform could discredit me.” mainly military personnel. Because many of them cannot achieve the same effectiveness as Wagner. ”
He also took a further stab at Russia’s wealthy elite on the Concord Telegram channel, stating: Some are at war, others are buying up real estate in Europe. ”
Prigozhin’s highly public campaign against the Russian military’s lackluster performance is not a challenge to Putin himself. In fact, Russian leaders may find it beneficial for someone to follow closely behind the military establishment. Prigozhin, along with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, became a Russian-sanctioned destroyer.
Maxim Trudolyubov of Russia File said, “The Russian state does not distinguish between legitimate and criminal violence. This is a feature, not a bug, and has always existed, but is especially noticeable now.”
Trudryubov tweeted. Putin thus claims to control both legitimate and criminal violence. ”
R.Politik analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said Prigozhin is “a sole proprietorship that relies heavily on how its relationships with authorities are built. As a result, it is in a very vulnerable position.”
Stanovaya said it is interesting that the governor of Russia’s Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, has just completed Wagner’s basic training course.
However, Prigozhin’s final game is unknown. It’s unclear if he’s trying to sell serious political clout, or if he’s just pushing Wagner’s sometimes opaque agenda. It may depend on his fighter’s luck in the Donetsk region.
