On June 27, Vladimir Putin thanked the Russian security forces for “defending the constitutional order, life, security and freedom of citizens, saving the Motherland from upheavals, and actually stopping the civil war.”
Also, according to Putin, the maintenance of the Wagner group was fully provided by the state. “From the Ministry of Defense, from the state budget, we fully financed this group. Only from May 2022 to May 2023, the state paid the Wagner company 86 billion 262 million rubles for salaries and incentive payments,” the Russian president said.
Earlier, the Kremlin denied the involvement of the Russian state in this PMC. This was also done by Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, including arguing the fact that by law private military companies are prohibited in Russia.
Why does Putin talk so much and often about Prigozhin’s rebellion and who can really stand behind it, explained military-political expert Yuri Fedorov.
Military-political expert explained who could be behind Prigozhin’s rebellion
– Putin talks about the suppressed rebellion three times in two days, specially gathers the military in the Kremlin for gratitude and admits that the Wagner PMC was financed from the budget. Why is all this happening?
“Putin urgently needs to somehow fix what is impossible to fix,” that badly damaged authority, when he fled Moscow, apparently for Valdai, then turned to Lukashenka. Lukashenka told a lot of interesting things yesterday. The fact that, on the one hand, Putin gave the order to suppress the rebellion, but after some time – it was not yet 11 o’clock, he called Lukashenka and complained that Prigozhin did not pick up the phone. He wants to get through to him, to get through to the rebel, to say something like that, they don’t need to speak, they need to negotiate somehow, but he doesn’t pick up the phone. Such an absolutely useless miserable statement. And Lukashenka had to intervene: at 11 o’clock in the morning, Lukashenka took on the role of Putin. Now it is clear that all this requires some kind of restoration, as Putin thinks. He needs to mix the negative impression that his behavior and the behavior of the entire Russian power system in general left during this rebellion. He’s lying now. Well, he always lies – there is nothing new here.
As for these 86 billion rubles that the Russian state spent on maintaining and operating the Wagner PMC, I am ready to believe him, because, really, who else could support this group, supply it with weapons? Of course, these were government agencies. But, you see, here again, Putin looks like that same non-commissioned officer’s widow who flogged herself: he admitted that, being a completely narrow-minded political leader – not only narrow-minded, but simply miserable – he himself raised with his own hands what -something of a monster that rebelled, that rebelled. And now he somehow tries to explain, but he explains extremely unsuccessfully, because if he himself financed the creation of this instrument of rebellion, then he is a completely bad statesman, unable to foresee the consequences of his actions. But this has been noticed for a long time.
SEE ALSO: “We will not go under the Ministry of Defense.” Wagnerites – about what awaits them after the march on Moscow
Now he is trying to somehow crawl out of this stupid and extremely unfortunate situation for him, lying about the fact that the security forces stopped the movement of the Wagner column. Lukashenka spoke yesterday about how much manpower and means had been collected to stop the Wagnerites: they had gathered 10 thousand somewhere in the Moscow region by the evening, including students of military academies. But this is not the audience and not the number that can really stop the movement of militant rebels who have good combat experience and are ready to fight to the last soldier. Many have spoken about this. So Putin puts a good face on a bad game – this is understandable.
– It is surprising that Putin now acknowledges Russian government funding of the Wagner group. Do you understand what was the idea of political technologists, the presidential administration, which brought these certificates to Putin? And, most importantly, he says to the cameras: “We paid for the work of Prigozhin’s group, we paid 86 billion for it.” What is the meaning of these words now?
– I understand this in such a way that Putin and his apparatus are in a state of deep confusion and do not understand very well what they say to him and what they write. They will write first, Putin will speak first, then he will think about what impression this could and did have on the audience. But then it will be too late. After all, this is his corporate style: first he speaks, first he does, and then he tries to understand what consequences may follow from this. That’s all. Such people rule Russia today – there are no others in this great country with the second army in the world. You have to make do with what you have.
SEE ALSO: “Difficult times begin for Russian officers and soldiers.” Military analyst on the consequences of Prigozhin’s rebellion for the front
– You say that this should probably save Putin’s image after the events on Saturday. Do you think it will work?
– I think that it will work for the deep Russian people, because Putin is the product of those moods, expectations, ideals that exist in the Russian mass consciousness, in the minds of those very layers and groups that are called the deep people. Otherwise, it is not clear how he was able to stay in power for 23 years, because this is no coincidence. So, Putin is the leader that the Russian people like. Such a mysterious Russian soul. Here it is pleasant – means, such people. Each country has the leader it deserves. Russia deserves Putin. So much the worse for Russia.
– Tonight The New York Times wrote that, according to American intelligence, General Surovikin could have known that Prigozhin was going to stage a rebellion, and now the US authorities are trying to establish whether Surovikin himself took part in organizing this rebellion, because, as they believe, Prigozhin did not could go on this rebellion without the support of someone else in the structures of the Russian Ministry of Defense. In your opinion, this version has the right to exist – what could some high-ranking people know in advance about Prigozhin’s rebellion?
– I think it has a right to exist. Most likely, it was so. Let’s remember. Probably, Colonel-General Mizintsev, Deputy Minister of Defense, was fired five weeks ago. A very peculiar figure in the Russian military hierarchy. And where did he go? He immediately became Prigozhin’s deputy for the logistics of the Wagner group.
But the point is not that he provided supplies of weapons and everything else there. His main task was to maintain contacts with the highest Russian generals – between Prigogine and the generals. It is clear that the Deputy Minister of Defense, the military personnel, the Colonel General, of course, had such connections: formal, informal, he was friends with someone, he drank with someone, he discussed all these plots with someone confidentially. By the way, nothing is known about Mizintsev now. Either he went to Belarus with Prigozhin, or he was arrested – I don’t know, it doesn’t matter. His fate, after all, is not such an important task.
How many people died during the Wagner rebellion and who are they?
Surovikin’s duties included maintaining operational contact between the Ministry of Defense and the Wagner group. And this was done on the same days when Mizintsev went to the service of Prigogine. And Surovikin was appointed to the post precisely at the request and on the recommendation of Prigogine.
So, I think, Prigozhin has such trusting ties with the highest generals, and not only with Surovikin and Mizintsev. I think that the contacts there are much deeper and they are preserved. Now, of course, these generals are trembling, afraid for their positions, for their freedom. But nevertheless these contacts were. I have a deep impression that someone was pushing Prigogine. Perhaps the military, perhaps some people from the state security, in general from the civilian apparatus of government. Otherwise, I think, who is Prigogine? Just a military field commander. He could risk such an adventure only if he had some kind of more or less trusting connections and if he could hope for support from serious people in Moscow who had real power.
– And will Putin now carry out some kind of personnel purges in the Ministry of Defense in this regard, given that Putin himself financed the Wagner group?
“I think purges are inevitable, they will just be delayed. If we start the purges now, then everyone – not only in the state apparatus and the highest bureaucracy, but also for normal people in Russia – will immediately understand that Prigozhin’s conspiracy had very serious and deep roots. But in three or four weeks, I think, heads will roll and epaulettes will be torn off a number of major generals, high-ranking people in the Ministry of Defense, in the General Staff, with whom Prigozhin had contact and who pushed him to this adventure.
SEE ALSO: “Putin is blown away politically, image and authoritatively.” Political scientist on expectations from Putin’s address after Prigozhin’s rebellion
2023-06-28 09:38:15
#Prigozhin #adventure #support #people #Moscow #Wagner #rebellion #explains #Yuri #Fedorov
