Thanks to Prigozhin Putins War on Ukraine Has Come Home - World News - Haaretz

This was the lowest moment for Vladimir Putin since he launched his invasion of Ukraine, 16 months ago: Recording a message to the nation, which was broadcast on Saturday at ten in the morning.

With a pale face, he was forced to admit that he had lost control of his warlords. It was a “blow for Russia. A blow for our people.” For once, he was telling the truth.

For over two decades, Putin had built up Yevgeny Prigozhin, a violent criminal, hotdog seller and restaurateur. He made him his subcontractor for dirty work around the world, rewarded him with massive contracts to supply food to the Russian army and allowed him to create a private army, perhaps the largest mercenary force the world has ever seen – the Wagner Group.

Putin remained on the sidelines in recent months as Prigozhin escalated a vicious online slanging-match against another of his proteges, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, over the way the war was being managed in Ukraine.

Since coming to power at the end of the previous century, Putin’s dominance has been based on his ability to carve up control of the Russian Federation’s apparatus and its natural resources between a group of apparatchiks and oligarchs who, in return, gave him complete loyalty (and billions in kickbacks).

When, on Friday evening, Prigozhin launched another online tirade, in which he revealed the ‘truth,’ or so he claimed, about the reasons for the pointless war and announced he would lead his men on a campaign against the leadership of the Russian army, he didn’t directly blame Putin for the war’s failures. He acted in the Russian tradition of “the Czar is good, but he is being misled by evil advisors.”

Putin, who had deluded himself until that moment that he could continue playing off the members of his court against each other, realized that he finally had to pick a side. It may well prove, beyond the immediate fallout of Prigozhin’s declaration of hostilities and now his apparent retreat, to have been much too late.

An APC and police officers stand on the highway on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia on Saturday, defensive measures againast the Wagner group head's threat to march on the capitalCredit: AP

For around 24 hours, Prigozhin threatened to lead a “liberty march” on Moscow, where he would have held Shoigu and the other generals to account. Then Saturday evening, he backed down and said his men were returning to their bases. It would seem that he reached the conclusion that his chances of taking Moscow were slim. Like every dictatorship, in Russia as well, the strongest and most loyal units are deployed around the capital.

But even if Prigozhin retired the most expansive elements of his cunning plan, he had already caused Putin maximum damage just by capturing Rostov-on-Don. His Wagner fighters took the southern city of over a million residents within a few hours, stopping for coffee in local restaurants.

That should not come as a surprise. Rostov has been the military and logistical center for the invasion forces in Ukraine, and Wagner units have regularly passed through on their way to the battlefield and as an integral part of the Russian army’s supply lines. The people of Rostov see them as regular Russian soldiers and many of the officers based there have close ties to them as well.

By taking over the army headquarters in Rostov, Prigozhin caused a massive dilemma to Putin and the generals. An attack on the base, by land or air, or a siege, would have paralyzed the Russian war effort in Ukraine at a critical moment, as the Ukrainian army is in the opening stages of its major summer offensive. The Russian army does not have the operational flexibility to set up an alternative headquarters. Prigozhin refused to let the soldiers there leave, and he has promised to allow them to continue conducting operations.

Wagner group mercenaries on guard at the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don after the group took over the premisesCredit: AP

As long as he’s there with his men, he is safe. It remains to be seen whether he will risk himself now by leaving. Meanwhile, every new video he releases on his Telegram channel blows another crater in the “special military operation” narrative the Kremlin has been building since the invasion and weakens Putin’s hold on power.

For months, Prigozhin has been gradually escalating his online campaign against Shoigu – he began by accusing him of competence in managing the war, then blamed him for withholding supplies and ammunition from his Wagner fighters, who were doing most of the work on the frontlines. More recently he accused the army of actively sabotaging and even firing upon Wagner forces.

On Friday, however, he broke all the rules about Russia’s own narrative of its invasion of Ukraine. He accused the Russian defense ministry of “trying to deceive society, the president, and tell a story - that there was insane aggression from Ukraine and that they intended to attack us with the whole NATO bloc. The special military operation that began on February 24 was started for completely different reasons."

Prigozhin accused a "clan of oligarchs" of starting the war for their benefit, so they could pillage Ukraine and said, sarcastically, that the "demilitarization" and "de-Nazification" of Ukraine were "pretty stories."

'Join us at Wagner': Recruitment poster for Yevgeny Prigozhin's mercenary force being taken down on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, Russia after he called for an armed rebellionCredit: AP

The obvious question is why then did Prigozhin himself support the war so enthusiastically, embark on a recruitment drive in Russian prisons (which he knows well as a former inmate), encourage his men to carry out war crimes and send tens of thousands to their deaths? He accuses the generals of sending a hundred thousand young Russians into the “meat-grinder,” but has done much more than his own share of butchery.

But the more immediate question is: Whom will the Russian people believe now?

Prigozhin is no dissident, like the imprisoned Alexei Navalny. He has been glorified by the state throughout the war as a fearless Russian patriot prepared to sacrifice everything on the battlefield. He has boasted of killing, with a sledgehammer, one of his men who committed the sin of being taken prisoner. Bizarrely, he still insists he fully supports the war. But he has already caused Putin’s propaganda machine major damage, and will continue doing so as long as he’s breathing and holding a smartphone.

And while for a night and a day it looked as if civil war was breaking out inside Russia, the war in Ukraine continues. The Wagner units were only a small proportion of the entire Russian force, but were seen as being more professional and motivated than most of the other units. Their absence, if they do not return to the frontline now, will be felt. It isn’t clear either how the Russian army intends to feed its soldiers without the Wagner contractors.

The Ukrainian summer counter-offensive has so far been slow and gradual, but this may be the opportunity for quickly scaling-up the attack and bringing in the newly-formed armored divisions equipped with Western tanks.

Within days, Putin could find himself facing both new calamities on the Ukrainian battlefield and, if Prigozhin does not get what he wants, perhaps still a civil war at home. His ‘special military operation,’ which was supposed to conquer Kyiv within three days, is coming home.

Click the alert icon to follow topics:

Adblock test (Why?)

"come" - Google News
June 25, 2023 at 01:55AM
https://ift.tt/UZKq3YI

Thanks to Prigozhin, Putin’s War on Ukraine Has Come Home - World News - Haaretz
"come" - Google News
https://ift.tt/irzOReP
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update

Bagikan Berita Ini