The conflict between the founder of “Wagner” PMC prigozhin and minister of defense of the russian federation shoigu increasingly enters the public sphere.
On February 21, the press service of PMC “Wagner” published an address of its owner, where he showed a photo with the losses of russian mercenaries. They died, apparently, because the leadership of the regular troops did not give the Wagnerites shells. According to prigozhin, neither the minister of defense shoigu, nor the commander of a group of russian troops in Ukraine gerasimov do not want to correct the situation. A whole campaign was launched to accuse the top military command of failing to support the most effective russian forces in Ukraine. The leader of the occupied Crimea, aksyonov, took prigozhin’s side and bots flooded social networks with the demand to give the mercenaries shells. “Wagner” fighters resorted to theatrical performances: sometimes shooting paper made chief of the general staff gerasimov, sometimes defecating on him.
In response, the ministry of defense assured that there are no problems with the ammunition of the “Wagnerites” and also accused prigozhin of “attempts to cause a split” in the russian military group fighting in Ukraine.
Everything suggests that the conflict between prigozhin and shoigu has entered a “hot” phase.
The russian military leadership has gone on the offensive and is making efforts to establish control over Wagner-type private military companies and remove them from management decision-making. O.Gromov, the deputy chief of the Main Operational Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, stated at a briefing that “the ministry of defense of the russian federation is generally trying to oust prigozhin from the information field.” Also, in order to establish control over the PMC and other paramilitary formations, the russian military seeks to lock in their supply of weapons, military equipment and food. In addition to “Wagner”, we are talking about “Hawk” PMC affiliated with the federal security service of the russian federation. In response, prigozhin said that the statement of the ministry of defense is a “spit in the “Wagner” PMC and an attempt to hide the “crimes” of the ministry of defense against militants who are achieving some success near Bakhmut.
The very fact that prigozhin dared to bring the conflict to public discussion shows that the “cook” no longer has access to putin’s body and is desperately trying to reach the supreme commander-in-chief in order to influence the russian general staff.
Putin does not like prigozhin’s clear attempts to advance his political ambitions against the background of the war against Ukraine. Despite the fact that thanks to his closeness with the russian dictator, prigozhin became one of the key players in the war, his appetites in the political sphere alarm the ruler of the kremlin. The tension arose when putin attributed the success of Soledar to russia without mentioning Wagner at all.
Before that, the conflict between prigozhin and shoigu was used by putin as a lever to restrain the political ambitions of both.
However, due to the defeats at the front, especially the unsuccessful assault on Bakhmut, putin decided to gradually abandon the “Wagner”, preferring the soldiers of the regular russian army and the government officials of shoigu and gerasimov. Currently, the kremlin is sending prigozhin a very public signal – the russian ministry of defense is managing the conflict and can end the war without his “Wagner”. A vivid example of putin’s disdain for prigozhin is the situation during his visit to st. petersburg on January 18, when putin refused to meet with him, but held a working meeting with the governor o.beglov, one of prigozhyn’s “bitter” enemies, whom he tried to remove from office.
Will the confrontation end there? Most likely, prigozhin will not stop trying to become a central figure in russian politics and a hero of russian public opinion. However, these attempts are doomed to failure. His statement on February 18 that “Wagner” is not subordinate to the ministry of defense and “has nothing to do with the russian army” only irritated putin and confirmed the correctness of his decision to distance himself from his former friend. Attempts to attract ultra-nationalists and russian bloggers to their side also turn out to be useless – bloggers do not want to spoil relations with the kremlin, and russian nationalist groups themselves are fighting for political influence in the russian federation (the conflict between prigozhin and the russian nationalist I. Girkin is a confirmation of this). Prigozhin also lost such an ally as kadyrov, who determined his official ties with the kremlin and position in the russian government more profitable than political relations with an outsider, whose influence is catastrophically declining.
❗️No matter how the confrontation between the odious PMC and regular russian troops ends, it is a positive factor for the Ukrainian side, because it discredits the putin regime, demoralizes the russian military and reduces their combat potential.
