/Pogledinfo/ If there will be a “Man of the Month” nomination in Russia, then in May it will definitely be Yevgeny Prigozhin. But not alone, but together with all the fighters of “Wagner”. In May, the long months and bloody battles for Artyomovsk came to an end. This cost the “musicians” who stormed the city huge losses (about 20 thousand killed: 10 thousand full-time employees and 10 thousand previously convicted citizens), but the city was captured, the armed forces of Ukraine and the Bandera people were bled (“two hundred ”, i.e. killed – 50-55 thousand, including mercenaries, approximately 70-72 thousand “three hundred”, i.e. wounded).
President Putin congratulated the soldiers of the Russian army and the “Wagner” units on the victory.
But if there was a nomination for “Scandal of the Month”, then Prigozhin would also take it with his interviews and critical statements on the network, called “clearing”, addressed to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
And if there was a “biggest misunderstanding” nomination, then today the “musicians” would get it again. Since the status of PMC “Wagner” is still unclear. De facto it exists, it fights valiantly on the battlefield, but de jure it does not exist – there is still no PMC law.
However, the inclusion of Prigozhin and his troops in May’s “biggest misunderstanding” nomination is not entirely accurate. The issue of PMC legalization has been raised for many years. For the last time at the beginning of the year, the issue was raised by the head of the “Just Russia – For the Truth” faction in the State Duma, Sergey Mironov.
He called PMC “Wagner” a “heroic military formation” and proposed to legalize it. The SRZI leader added that already in 2017, “Just Russia” prepared and introduced a law on private military companies.
“I am absolutely convinced that it is necessary to legalize this heroic military formation,” he said.
At the time, the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said that no distinction should be made between who fights how.
“Those who protect us – military personnel, mobilized, members of PMC “Wagner” – all of them protect the country, this should be our unified position,” emphasized Volodin.
However, there is no PMC law. Why? This question, against the background of the successful execution of combat missions by the Wagnerites (the capture of Soledar, Artyomovsk and not only them), is being asked by many today. The answers are varied.
Thus, back in December, in the context of Prigozhin’s sharp assessments of the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Minister of Defense, Deputy of the State Duma, retired lieutenant general, former commander of the 58th Army, Viktor Sobolev, spoke on this topic.
He said without undue diplomacy:
“Let’s be honest and frank – he (Prigozhin) has a private military company and this is illegal. Yes, they are on our side, we turn a blind eye, but this, I repeat, is illegal,” the general said.
“PMC “Wagner” should have been put in its place a long time ago: they do not play such a role in the zone of the special military operation to dictate their terms. Putting themselves above others is unacceptable,” he further stated.
The former army chief emphasized that the army needs strict centralization.
Yevgeny Prigozhin answered Sobolev in his own spirit – let him go to the front and show his abilities.
In general, in the military environment, the attitude towards “musicians” is ambiguous. But here a distinction must be made between the opinions of the military, who know the army from the inside, from the numerous “couch experts” who have not smelled gunpowder, but are very angry – either on someone’s orders or because they want to vent their anger on the web.
The valor and courage of the “Wagnerians” are recognized by the people in uniform, their organization, the absence of superfluous, often simply unnecessary bureaucracy, too, but many believe that firstly, not only the “Wagnerians” are fighting, and secondly, that the disintegration of the army – is not correct.
“Today we have the Armed Forces, the Border Guard Service of the FSB (FPSFSB), Rogvardia. If we add here the PMC, not only Prigozhin, but also others, smaller ones, then discord ensues. And we need a unified control center, during the Great Patriotic War it was the headquarters, otherwise some kind of “Makhnovism” will result. No matter how we will get the Cheka out of the PMC,” says Captain 1st rank Sergey Ishchenko
– “There is one more point. Between the Ministry of Defense and PMC “Wagner” there is a real competition for “bayonets”. Many men, choosing where to go to serve, do not choose the army, which actively invites contract soldiers, but Wagner. If not lie, up to 10,000 people a month were signing up at Prigozhin’s “orchestra” recruiting centers,” he continues.
The geography of these centers is wide – from Surgut, Yoshkar-Ola, Kaliningrad to Chita and Krasnoyarsk. Several points, of course, are located in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In a word, the music of the “orchestra” is becoming more and more popular in the country, despite the legal conflicts.
By the way, after leaving the civil service, Ramzan Kadyrov also spoke about his PMC. However, few doubt that this will happen soon. By then, the PMC law can be adopted.
In addition, as Kadyrov said, the “private military company” Wagner “firmly” proved its effectiveness in military terms and drew a line under the talk about the need for PMC.
However, the debate over the legalization of private military companies continues.
– “I fought in Afghanistan, in our time the structure of the army was different. There were no volunteers and contractors, especially the PMC. But our units performed combat tasks. What is happening now is not entirely clear to me,” says the Hero of the Soviet union, retired Airborne Forces colonel Nikolai Kravchenko, who lives in Omsk
– “There are heavy battles, our soldiers and officers are dying … In my opinion, now is not the time to raise the issue of legalizing private military companies. There is no need to rush,” he said.
“The troops will fulfill the task set by the commander-in-chief, after which we will be able to return to the topic. In general, this is the job of the politicians, and the military is to protect the Motherland,” added Kravchenko.
Andrey Klishas, chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Legislation of the Federation Council, sees the problem on a slightly different level:
“… In order to pass any law, a public request is needed. It’s already there, are citizens excited about this topic? No. Are there legislative initiatives in this direction? I didn’t see them,” he explained his point of view.
Maybe. The only question is how and where to look.
One can argue at length about the representativeness of these and other surveys, about media factors and other subtleties of sociology, about the promoted brand, but the point, I think, is that today “Wagner” – in any case – expresses our hope for victory. And turns that hope into reality on the battlefield.
This point of view was also supported by the deputy of the State Duma of four convocations, former senator of the Federation Council Franz Klintsevich, chairman of the board of the Russian Union of Veterans of Afghanistan, winner of two orders of the Red Star.
“I have been at war for many years, I hate war. But what PMC Wagner is doing today is one of the most important tools and examples of true attitude towards the Motherland and the defense of the Fatherland. So let’s [тези критици] shut up, otherwise sooner or later everyone will have to answer for this before the Lord God and the veteran community. They don’t realize it yet.”
“Private military company Wagner, whose fighters are heroically fighting in the special operation zone, is actually illegal, the status of the PMC and other issues are not regulated by law. State Duma deputy Mihail Sheremet proposed to do this already in the winter.
According to him, it is necessary to solve the issue with PMC “Wagner” at the legislative level, to adopt the necessary laws for the social protection of the organization’s fighters, to equalize with the Russian army in terms of receiving state awards, benefits and pensions.
Benefits should be extended to Wagnerian families, etc. The fighters themselves should receive the status of battle veterans, as well as servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and volunteers.
It cannot be said that the Kremlin does not hear these opinions. The government is looking for compromises. Thus, in March, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law introducing criminal sanctions for discrediting participants in the Special Military Operation (SVO), including members of volunteer groups. The law also applies to PMC “Wagner”, said the press secretary of the head of state of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov.
The issue of social guarantees is also being resolved. The authorities of the Leningrad region have already equated the fighters of private military companies with the servicemen of the armed forces.
The governor of the Leningrad Region, Alexander Drozdenko, requested lists of Leningraders who fought in Wagner’s ranks. They are entitled to support measures from the region.
Fighters from PMC “Wagner” are now entitled to certificates for combat veterans.
Previously, fighters returning from SVO experienced difficulties in obtaining such documents. The main reason was that many of the nuances were not spelled out in the legislation.
But still one gets the impression of some kind of mosaic that has not developed into a single pattern. Comprehensiveness is not enough. They patched it there, here, but the legal loopholes remain.
“Today, the need for a PMC law is ripe and overdue,” says lawyer and human rights activist Dmitry Agranovsky.
— “There are PMCs, they operate and show their effectiveness. We see it right now in the SVO area. And therefore legislative regulation of their activity is necessary, regardless of whether someone likes such structures or not,” he said.
Yes, the problem is complex, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be solved. In principle, it is not right when a group of armed people exists outside the legal field.
Alexander Khramcikhin, deputy director of the Institute for Political and Military Analyses, shares the same point of view:
– “A military structure that does not legally exist is nonsense. The law should have been passed the day before yesterday. It’s strange that they didn’t.”
“It’s really strange, because when the government wants it, the deputies pass laws very quickly. Sometimes there are two hearings at once…”
Not so long ago, a cemetery appeared on the outskirts of the village of Bakinskaya in the Krasnodar Territory, where the Wagnerites who fell in battle were buried. Those who have written a will that they want to be buried here, as well as orphans. There are also buried bodies here, which for various reasons were not collected by relatives.
There are dozens of graves, wreaths with red stars on them. There will probably be more graves lately. Somewhere there are crosses, somewhere columns with a crescent moon. In the future, Yevgeny Prigozhin intends to open a memorial at this place.
The fallen “Wagnerians” no longer care about the disputes that are going on around the PMC law. They honestly fulfilled their military duty – some in Syria, some in Libya, some in Ukraine, they fought and died not so much for money as for their homeland.
Translation: SM
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