PRIGOZHIN REBELLION
WHY IN NEWS ?
- Recently, Russia’s Wagner group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin declared rebellion and determination to oust Russian military leadership, accusing it of attacking his men.
WHAT IS WAGNER GROUP ?
- The Wagner Group (officially called PMC Wagner) was first identified in 2014, when it was backing pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.
- At that time it was a secretive organisation, operating mostly in Africa and the Middle East, and is thought to have had only about 5,000 fighters – mostly veterans of Russia’s elite regiments and special forces.
- About 80% of Wagner’s troops in Ukraine have been drawn from prisons, the US National Security Council said at the start of this year.
- Although mercenary forces are illegal in Russia, the Wagner Group registered as a company in 2022 and opened a new headquarters in St Petersburg.
- It is openly recruiting in Russian cities, on billboards, and is being named in Russian media as a patriotic organisation.
- Since 2015, Wagner Group mercenaries have been in Syria, fighting alongside pro-government forces and guarding oilfields.
- There are also Wagner Group mercenaries in Libya, supporting the forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar.
- The Central African Republic (CAR) has invited the Wagner Group to guard diamond mines, and it is thought to be guarding gold mines in Sudan.
HOW WAS THE GROUP STARTED ?
- A veteran of Russia’s wars in Chechnya, he is thought to have been Wagner’s first field commander and to have named the group after his former radio call sign.
- The current head is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rich businessman nicknamed “Putin’s chef” because he provided catering for the Kremlin.
- The Wagner Group’s first operation was helping Russia annex Crimea in 2014.
WAGNER GROUP AND CURRENT RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
- The Wagner group under Prigozhin has benefited Russia significantly in the ongoing war against Ukraine.
- It was this mercenary group that captured the key regions of Soledar and Bakhmut for Russia.
- Prigozhin was trying to resist moves by the defence ministry to bring all private military companies under their control.
- He has had a long-standing grouse with Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu and the Armed Forces Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.
- In Ukraine, it essentially boiled down to the fact that he felt they were not conducting the war correctly and he was openly criticising some of their tactics.
PRIGOZHIN’S COUP AGAINST PUTIN’S REGIME :
- The Wagner group had taken control of Rostov-on-Don, or at least so the Wagner group claimed.
- Prigozhin claimed on video that he was in control of the airport and the functioning of the headquarters.
- As he declared this march, Putin came on Russian television and accused Prigozhin of treason. He called it a stab in the back and said that decisive action would be taken, which would essentially mean military action would be taken, against anybody who mutinies.
- Prigozhin ignored this and Wagner troops started moving towards Moscow in organised columns.
- On the way, they also overran the city of Voronezh, which is on the main highway to Moscow. They managed to travel to within 200 kilometres of Moscow, at which point the negotiations with Lukashenko came.
WHY RUSSIA’S MILITARY DIDN’T ATTACKED WAGNER GROUP ?
- The reason why group reached up to that point without significant resistance seems to be that the leadership in Moscow were hoping to resolve the situation without bloodshed.
- Prigozhin has a long-standing friendship with the Belarus president. They have known each other for many years.
- One is that Prigozhin’s troops are going back to the barracks and Prigozhin himself would move to Belarus.
- Those in the Wagner group who did not participate in the mutiny would be offered contracts with the Russian defence ministry.
- All the others, keeping in mind their “heroic actions in the war”, would be allowed to go home with no prosecution.
- Also, the criminal case instituted against Prigozhin for inciting an insurrection would be withdrawn.
- There is no mention of what happened to Prigozhin’s main demands, of changing the defence minister and the Chief of Staff, although the spokesperson said that personnel changes were not part of the negotiation.
WILL THIS MUTINY PUT THE DENT ON PUTIN’S IMAGE ?
- Counterintuitively, there is a different theory too, that actually his image has got reinforced, because the Russian people value the fact that Putin as the leader of Russia was able to resolve such a complicated situation without bloodshed.
- Russian social media showed that when the situation was resolved, there was general rejoicing.
FUTURE FOR WAGNERS GROUP :
- At present, it appears that the Wagner group is disbanded.
- But it will probably be resurrected under some other guise.
- It is unclear what happens to the operations of the Wagner group in Syria, Libya, Africa, etc. These operations were in Russia’s interests, so the group will probably be revived in some form, maybe under a new name or a new leader.
INDIA’S WAY FORWARD:
- In Moscow, the situation seems to have been calm, with work going on as usual. So there were no reasons for New Delhi to panic about anything.
- But for now, Russia has a headache on its hands, because with the Wagner group gone, there are armed and trained Russians sitting in various parts of the globe, mainly in Africa and the Middle East.
- The Russian government will have to do something about it.
SYLLABUS: MAINS, GS-2, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
SOURCE: THE INDIAN EXPRESS
