Yevgeny Prigozhin – A caterer who added a second business line as the leader of the Russian Wagner mercenary organization.
So many experts and so many opinions – most of the expert opinions pushing an agenda versus offering an objective analysis.
If you do not have time to read all of this comment, here are my ‘expert’ conclusions:
The war in the Ukraine will continue.
Prigozhin is toast.
And as the late great Paul Harvey used to say, “and now, the rest of the story”.
A little background goes a long way when faced with a plethora of conspiracy theories.
Prigozhin was a wheeler dealer as a business man using political connections to develop a lucrative catering business with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Prigozhin known background is less than inspirational: a convict sentenced for various crimes, no reported military service or military experience, and a murky mystery how he came to be the leader of the Wagner Group. It appears the Wagner Group was created to do some of ‘the dirty jobs’ which were politically problematic for the Russian government. The US had a similar go-to organization, Blackwater, for certain awkward missions. (I had a former Henley-Putman student who worked for Blackwater).
The early Wagner organization appeared to be staffed with former Russian servicemen, mostly from the elite unites: Spetsnaz, Special Forces, and paratroops. However, the demands for Wagner operations in Africa and the Ukraine quickly diluted this experienced troop base as Wagner turned to Russian prisons, with full support of the Putin government, to recruit large numbers of additional personnel for the Wagner Group. The Wagner Group was totally dependent on the Russian government for funding and logistic support.
The reports of Wagner battlefield successes raised the Wagner Group and Prigozhin to an almost mythical status in Russia. At the same time, international reports of Wagner Group atrocities were part of a competing ongoing propaganda campaign by the West.
The reality of the non-Civil War appears to be that Prigozhin believed the press releases and became a legend in his own mind. Prigozhin began to publicly attack senior Russian generals, the Ministry of Defense, and in that process, indirectly slur Vladimir Putin.
Long story short, the former caterer made a bad recipe when he tried to march on Moscow. In less than one day the rebellion was over: Wagner Group finished, Prigozhin dead man walking, and the Ukraine war goes on.
Read more on the Russian Situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment