Prigozhin's War With Russian Officials Nearing Pivotal Moment: U.K. Intel
Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin's war of words with Russian officials is nearing a pivotal moment, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Thursday, after the tycoon moved to challenge a demand from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The MoD noted that on June 10, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered members of "volunteers formations" such as the Wagner Group to sign contracts directly with the defense ministry. This move was explicitly endorsed by Putin on national television three days later, and quickly shut down by Prigozhin.
Tensions between the Wagner boss and Russia's military leadership are at an all-time high, but so far, Prigozhin has mainly sought to direct his criticism toward Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. He rarely speaks badly about the Russian president.
Russian billionaire and businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin attends a meeting with foreign investors at Konstantin Palace June 16, 2016, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He has been in a war of words with senior Russian figures. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
After Prigozhin rejected Shoigu's orders on signing military contracts with the Russian Federation by July 1, Putin said during a meeting with pro-war bloggers that his defense minster's initiative "has to be done and it has to be done as quickly as possible."
The move is "in line with common sense, with established practice and the law," Putin said.
Prigozhin, addressing Putin's statements, said: "When we started participating in this war, no one said that we would be obliged to conclude agreements with the ministry of defense."
"None of the Wagner fighters is ready to go down the path of shame again. And so no one will sign contracts," Prigozhin said, adding that he believed Putin would find a "compromise" for the Wagner Group.
"Prigozhin's rhetoric is evolving into defiance of broader sections of the Russian establishment. The deadline for the volunteers to sign contracts is likely to be a key way-point in the feud," the British MoD said.
Prigozhin's paramilitary outfit played a critical role in Russia's efforts to seize the industrial town of Bakhmut in Ukraine's eastern region. He ramped up public criticism of Russia's military leadership, including Shoigu, before his troops withdrew from Bakhmut this month. He has accused the minister of intentionally depriving his fighters of ammunition and support.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, weighed in on the dispute. He said Shoigu's order "may be a consequence of his conflict with Prigozhin and an attempt to take Wagner operatives under his control."
Prigozhin appeared to take aim at the Russian president in a rare rebuke last month, when he published expletive ridden videos calling Russian generals traitors.
"What if it turns out that the grandfather is a real a*****e?" he said.
"Obviously, grandfather is a reference to Putin," Vlad Mykhnenko, an expert in the post-communist transformation of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union at the U.K.'s University of Oxford, told Newsweek last month.
Prigozhin later downplayed the remark.
Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign ministry via email for comment.
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Source: Newsweek
