June 25, 2023
1. The beginning and end of the story
The Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) led by Evgeny Prigozhin, a restaurateur and catering tycoon from St. Petersburg, launched disobedience military actions in Russia that began on Friday, June 23.
Some PMC military men under his instructions seized a South Military District Army HQ, the Administration in Rostov-on-Don in the southern part of Russia, Rostov Region. The other group of the PMC fighters moved towards Moscow in tracks.
The third group of them refused to support Prigozhin’s orders, and announced that they would continue to fight with Ukrainian-NATO aggression against Russia.
In the evening of June 24 (9:00PM) it was officially announced that upon his own personal initiative and preliminary advice and consent from President Vladimir Putin Belarusian leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, who knows Prigozhin for nearly 20 years, reached a deal with the latter. Both men have confirmed that.
The brokered agreement includes:
1) an amnesty for Prigozhin against whom a criminal case was opened on June 24 with a right to live in Belarus (with no details have been disclosed so far – as to how long and in what capacity);
2) the PMC faction that displayed loyalty to Russia would sign the contract with Russian MoD;
3) the other group of the PMC that fulfilled Prigozhin’s order for disobedience was pardoned due to their merits on the battlefield and returned to their garrisons (the Army HQ in Rostov-on-Don and the city itself has been completely vacated by the PMC).
2. Questions related to the event
If Prigozhin has been characterized after that even as a person with ungrounded ambitions and irrational behavior why he has been given the permission to set up the Wagner PMC under his own command?
If Prigozhin had his own strategy how to disrupt Ukrainian-NATO aggression against Russia in the most effective way, why he has not disclosed it to the MoD and to the President? In Russia, actually any person can apply to the leaders of Russia without any obstacles by all available means.
3. Lessons to be borrowed from the event
The episode with Wagner PMC showed that the overwhelming majority of citizens of Russia supported President Putin’s appeal not to let an internal war in the country to be unleashed when NATO and Ukraine are waging an unprovoked and unjustified massive aggression against Russia. The Government, the speakers of two Houses of the Federal Parliament, the Governors, the Patriarch – all expressed their support of the President. All of them denounced and condemned Prigozhin’s actions.
Despite the PMC disobedience in the rear the activity of the Russian troops taking part in the Special Military Operation in Ukraine has intensified on all battlegrounds with more victories being gained.
It is a wrong practice and not suitable for Russia, especially when the leader of the PMC is a businessman who, by the way, was not partly very capable in his private business, to be the head of such military group. Any voluntary squadrons can be established and to be engaged in the battle under condition that they should sigh a special contract with the MoD and coordinated all their operations under its command and control. By now many such contracts have been signed.
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
