Militarily, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin can hardly score any more, but he is playing along in the information war. And more cleverly than it appears at first glance. Why nobody shuts up the complainer? Because he fulfills important purposes for Putin.
By Frauke Niemeyer
This article first appeared on n-tv.de
When it comes to wartime headlines, Yevgeny Prigozhin delivers reliably. If the mercenary boss complains about “bastards” or “ass-cramps,” one can now assume that the tirades aren’t aimed at Ukrainians, but are aimed at their own, Russian side. For months, the head of the military company Wagner and the leadership of the Russian armed forces have been fighting over the sovereignty of interpreting the combat situation.
Prigozhin’s advantage: He is very successful in various media channels on the Internet and can be sure that his claims will spread further from there. If his men did not make any headway in Bachmut, it was due to a lack of ammunition on Telegram. If enemy fighters advance in Belgorod, then, according to Prigozhin, the “chaos” in the Ministry of Defense is to blame. Finally, he considers intervening there himself: “We’re not waiting for an invitation.”
The nose swollen blue-red
Over the weekend, Prigozhin accused the Russian army of having mined a road his people had to use to retreat from the town of Bakhmut. It was also said that shots had been fired at those who were withdrawing. Consistent with the allegation, there is a video “interrogation” of the commander of the 72nd brigade of Russian troops. This unit also fought for Bachmut.
And this is what it looks like when Wagner people “interrogate” a commander of the allied Russian troops: Roman Venevitin, dressed in a quilted jacket instead of in uniform, is standing in a shed, lit by a lamp and has a remarkably blue-red swollen nose, which indicates abuse with broken bones. He answers the questions in monosyllables and quietly.
The military says he was drunk and fired at a car that belonged to the Wagner squad. The reason for this was “personal dislike”. For the same reason, he and ten to twelve of his own men disarmed a mercenary rapid response force. The voice behind the camera asks how his behavior should be judged. “Guilty.”
At this point, at the latest, it becomes clear that the “questioning” is probably more of a kind of summary court procedure of the Wagner brand, and that the alleged accused has confessed to all points. What awaits him as a “punishment” in the hands of the mercenaries can only be guessed at.
The testimonies of the apparently tortured commander are worthless as evidence for Prigozhin’s criticism that the Russian army stabbed him in the back when he pulled out. But they prove something else very clearly: Prigozhin is increasingly waging his own struggle at the front and in the Russian power structure. And the less important his troops become for the battlefield, the more the boss apparently has to show off in order to stay in the conversation.
Yevgeny Prigozhin complains and lies
Austrian military expert Markus Reisner analyzes that many of Prigozhin’s statements about the course of the war could not be proven in retrospect. Contrary to what the mercenary himself repeatedly claimed, he “received large quantities of ammunition in the battle for Bakhmut and also the weapon systems that he needed,” says the colonel.
“It’s always about the fight in the information space,” says Reisner. On this battlefield, Prigozhin struggles with false claims or grumbles about the “chaos” in the Russian army and publicly acts as the gruff type that the Russian troops themselves do not have. The current Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, is characterized more by familiarity with Putin than by strategic acumen and stage pig talent.
That way, Prigozhin can take on this job and Putin doesn’t have to fear that an eloquent military man could overtake him. Because the Wagner boss channels the dissatisfaction of the population with the bumpy course of the war without ever attacking the person primarily responsible, the Russian President. Prigozhin, “Putin’s cook,” as he is also known from the days when he was still doing business with Putin as the operator of a catering service, obediently concentrates on the second row: defense minister, chief of staff, other high-ranking military officers – people who Kremlin can replace at any time if someone is needed who is to blame for the disaster.
Prigozhin also celebrated the withdrawal of his people from Bakhmut with plenty of video material for social media. It is questionable how many of the mostly former prisoners will actually leave, or whether they will simply be taken over by the army and continue fighting on the spot under new leadership. At least that would also be one way of interpreting the media spectacle surrounding Wagner’s deduction: “It could possibly be a ‘Maschkerovka’, the Russian tradition of deception,” says Reisner. It would be an attempt to lure the Ukrainians into a trap with Wagner’s deduction, present themselves weakened and then ward off an attack all the more strongly.
Wagner is gone before the bad news comes
In any case, Prigozhin’s troops are not well suited to defending in the open country of the south. It is based on assault power by infantry, by soldiers with machine guns and assault rifles, which are superior to heavy artillery in cities, in the mountains or in the forest. The southern front, however, where the Russians fear the Ukrainian offensive, is in the open plain. There, the long-range firepower of tanks is needed.
For Wagner, his trigger, which was exploited by the media, has another advantage: Officially, the mercenary force would be out of the battle before the unpleasant news threatened from the front. If the Ukrainian offensive breaks through and the troops reclaim terrain and the Russians have to give way, that would no longer be associated with the Wagner name. And Prigozhin can calmly sell his butchers to other despots in the world.