Michael McFaul, a former U. S. ambassador to Russia, recently asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin is probably not done with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder and head of the Wagner Group who oversaw a 24- hour uprising inside the nation last weekend.
Former Putin supporter Prigozhin turned against the Russian leader and the defense minister following months of criticism of Moscow’ s military performance in the conflict in Ukraine. Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February, the Wagner Group has assisted Russian forces with military operations; nevertheless, Prigozhin has recently been vocal about the shortcomings of the Russian defense ministry.
By moving into Moscow, he intended to lead a mercenary revolt against the Russian government, but his efforts were curtailed when his forces retreated to their field camps as a result of de- escalation measures brokered by Putin’ s primary supporter, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The conflict between Putin and Prigozhin is still ongoing, according to McFaul, even though the mutiny was put down and the Wagner soldiers returned to their field camps rather than moving farther inside Russia.
” Given Putin’ s history of seeking vengeance against alleged traitors, including those who were exiled abroad (the assassinations of Sergey Litvinenko in London and Sergey Skripal in Salisbury, United Kingdom, and Aleksandr Poteyev in Miami), it is likely that Prigozhin is still on Putin’ s radar. It will send a strong message to other potential coup plotters if Prigozhin passes away suspiciously, the former ambassador wrote.
Putin still has control over Russia, according to McFaul, and his government is not in danger of falling, but the mutiny weakened his reputation as an all- powerful leader. Similar claims were made last weekend by the ex- ambassador, who claimed that Putin chose to accept humiliation rather than put down the Wagner Group’ s uprising.
Putin continued to call the Wagner leaders traitors while praising the soldiers as patriots and heroes. Putin begged these soldiers to join his side and reject their leaders in another display of weakness, McFaul said in the June op- ed.
Putin was attempting to placate the very same fighters who had staged a mutiny against his troops just days earlier, the author added. Putin’ s public speech uncannily resembled Prigozhin’ s messaging days before, which sought to divide the generals from the privates by branding the commanders as felons.
According to observers, the Wagner Group’ s uprising exposed some flaws in the Kremlin and the military leadership of Russia because Prigozhin was directly opposing Putin.
According to a report from the Russian- owned news site Tass, Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was able to prevent a civil war from erupting and commended law enforcement officials for their efforts in ” saving our homeland from turmoil, and stopping civil war. “
Law enforcement officers were praised by the Russian president for having protected the constitutional order, the lives, the security, and the freedom of its citizens. ” You prevented civil war and spared our country from chaos. You have shown responsibility for the fate of the Motherland and its future while acting logically and clearly in stressful circumstances. You also demonstrated your allegiance to the Russian people and the military oath. “
by: mbevikasee