The Western press writes about the interrogations and detentions of the Russian military. Thus, the American newspaper Wall Street Journal, citing sources claims: In the first hours of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion, the security forces detained at least 13 high-ranking Russian military men for interrogation, another 15 were dismissed or suspended from service.
According to Wall Street Journal sources, General Sergei Surovikin is still detained, he is being interrogated in Moscow. However, he has not been charged. According to one of the interlocutors of the newspaper, Surovikin knew about the impending rebellion, but did not participate in it. The possible detention and interrogation of Surovikin was previously reported by Nestka, Moscow Times, The Financial Times and Bloomberg.
Another suspension in the Russian army is likely unrelated to Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion. The leadership of the Ministry of Defense removed Ivan Popov, commander of the 58th Army of the Southern Military District, from his post. His voice message was published by State Duma deputy Andrei Gurulev.
Reuters writesthat the appearance of Popov’s audio message publicly criticizing the country’s military leadership less than three weeks after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny indicates a high level of discontent in the Russian army.
Military expert Yuri Fedorov told Current Time about what is happening in the command of the Russian army.
Yuri Fedorov – about what is happening in the command of the Russian army
– Do you understand what is happening in the Russian army? Can we say that there is some kind of split going on there?
– Certainly. I can’t say that I understand all the details and no one does. Those data, those assessments of the press that you have cited, testify to one thing: that the military command in Russia is engaged in squabbles with each other. Instead of somehow trying to fix the fighting that they should be doing, now high-ranking generals are doing this: they are trying to shift responsibility for the failures that the Russian army is suffering in Ukraine and shift them to their colleagues.
Think about what General Popov was talking about. If we summarize everything that we know about him, if we carefully listen to his speech, he says that he is not to blame for the failures of the Russian army, that the Russian army suffers heavy losses, but those who did not provide counter-battery combat are to blame . This is the first.
And the second important thing: he accused the high command of the Russian army that there is no rotation of units from the battle line to the rear for rest and so on. These are two fundamentally important points. The current war is primarily a war of artillery. And the side that succeeds in this struggle of two artillery systems will win the war.
And here is what another very serious source in the West writes – Forbes magazine – with references not only to intelligence data from Western sources, but also to independent experts: he writes that for every artillery mount lost in Ukraine, there are four lost artillery mounts in Russia. That is, roughly speaking, the losses of artillery in Russia in recent months during the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were four times higher than the losses of Ukrainian artillery. This is indeed a very important point.
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The second important point is rotation. The fact is that any unit – company, battalion, platoon – can fight for a relatively short time. This time is calculated in different ways: from a week to two. But the fact is that if a certain company fights directly on the battlefield – on the defensive or on the offensive – soldiers and officers are constantly engaged in war, suffer losses, and so on, then after about a week – after 10 days they lose their combat potential. They get tired, these are losses, demoralization from losses, and so on. Yes, just physical and psychological fatigue from this difficult situation directly on the battle line. They need to be taken to the rear. By the way, this is one of the axioms of military science – something that is written in all regulations: they need to be taken to the operational rear, given rest, and made up for losses. Just so people can come to their senses. Approximately two or three weeks – and then again on the battle line. This is what happens in any normal army.
What does Popov say? He says that there is no rotation. This means that the combat potential in the Russian army – in this case, in defense, because its 58th army in the Zaporozhye region participated in defensive battles – is losing combat capability.
– That is, there are no more Russian soldiers, there is no one to replace these soldiers on the front line?
– That’s exactly what happens. This means that the operational reserves that the Russian army has are not enough to carry out rotations. So people are just kept on the front lines. They, accordingly, get tired and lose their combat capability.
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– Can you agree that PMC “Wagner” has or may have followers in the future?
– I think that this is more terrible for Russia, for Putin, for the Russian army, for the entire Russian military system, than Prigozhin’s rebellion. Who is Prigogine? This is an adventurer, the owner of a gang of mercenaries. In the Middle Ages, it was called “condottiere” – such mercenary groups that fought for money on one side or another. Approximately the same “Wagner” does in Africa: just for the money. But he is not a Russian soldier.
And here is a career general of a very high level: an army commander is a very high level. In total, there are 22 combined-arms armies in Russia, as far as I understand. And now he challenges the high command. Specifically, Gerasimov. And moreover, it challenges in a form that is generally not accepted in any normal army. He calls his actions “despicable” and “treacherous”. If so, it means that he feels entitled to make such accusations, to throw them in the face of Gerasimov. This means that there are some people behind him. Popov is a popular general in the Russian army. It is no coincidence that he calls himself “Spartacus”, and his soldiers and officers – “my gladiators.”
Generally speaking, this is also such an interesting linguistic twist. This means that he calls the soldiers and officers of the Russian army not citizens of Russia, not defenders of Russia – he calls them “my gladiators.” And who are the gladiators? These are the slaves who fought in the arenas of the Roman circuses, and then revolted. This means that he is talking about the personal loyalty of these people to him, and not to Russia, not to Supreme Commander Putin.
SEE ALSO: “Prigozhin still has something to offer the Kremlin.” The editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta. Europe told why Putin received the founder of Wagner PMC
– Regarding the Supreme Commander. Can you explain why Putin is silent? He is now quite a lot in the public space: he speaks on television, on forums. Why doesn’t he say: “We have traitors, we deal with them”?
Because he doesn’t know what to do with them. He would very much like, of course, to turn Prigozhin’s head for these Prigozhin tricks, but he does not have the strength for this. What did he do? He arranged a meeting with the command of this entire group of Wagner PMCs and tried to buy out the officers, commanders of this group, promising them some kind of employment and so on. What it is? This is an attempt to outbid and say: “Now you will be my gladiators.” And Prigogine, therefore, can somehow be set aside. But two or three days before that, he called Prigozhin a “rebel”, “traitor” and “traitor”. And now, together with this traitor and traitor, he sits at the same table, drinks tea or something else and tries to outbid his commanders. This means that he simply does not have other means of maintaining order and at least some kind of discipline in the army, in these mercenary groups with the army. This means that he is losing his power support, he is losing support in law enforcement agencies. Accordingly, he loses power.
SEE ALSO: “Prigozhin’s key asset is his projects in Africa.” What is the meaning of the meeting of the founder of PMC “Wagner” with Putin and what will be its consequences
2023-07-15 03:00:13
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