Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin says “we are two months away from firing squads” as he continues to become more vocal in his disdain of the Kremlin’s handling of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
His latest outburst follows a stark warning earlier this month that executions of top Russian officials are on the cards as a consequence of their failures, reports The Daily Express US.
The Wagner Group is a Russian paramilitary organisation, dubbed a “private military company”, that has been supporting Vladimir Putin’s attempted invasion.
In an interview translated by Ukrainian-American war commentator Igor Sushko on Twitter, Prigozhin doubled down on the threats.
He said: “There will either be a popular revolt or the State Duma will make a decision on capital punishment and shoots the f*** out of them. And, by the way, I can tell you I think we are two months away from firing squads.”
READ MORE: Wagner boss’s ‘crazy’ feud with defence chief proves Putin ‘not in control’
However, the infighting among Putin’s subordinates may be exactly what the Russian President wants, according to Dr Peter Duncan at UCL’s School of Slavic and Eastern European Studies.
Dr Duncan told The Daily Express US: “What does Putin think about all this? I think Putin is quite happy about it – other people beneath him squabbling – so that he can be above it so that he can set other people against each other and nobody actually threatens him.”
He also claimed Putin has rigged the political system to work for him since he came to power in 1999.
“Putin set up the system more or less since he’s been in power when he became acting President at the end of 1999. He’s had different groups of people who are subordinate to him at each other’s throats for different reasons so he can stay in power,” he added.
Dr Duncan believes that for Prigozhin, jockeying for power may be more about protecting his Wagner wealth than any actual political ambitions.
“When Russian oligarchs will get wealthy, they begin to worry: ‘Oh, well, maybe the Russian state will come and take it away from me’,” he said.
Wagner has been involved in conflicts from Ukraine to Syria, in addition to multiple African countries.
The corporation secured mineral rights including for gold and oil in many of these wars zones, although much of that profit is kicked back to the Russian state remains unknown.
There is also evidence money flows in the opposite direction – from Russia to Wagner – and Prigorzhin has carried out Putin’s foreign policy with the benefit of insulating Russia from backlash.
In what has been seen as an attempt to limit his growing power, the Kremlin has forced so-called “volunteer” groups – including Wagner and Chechen politician Ramzan Kadyrov’s forces – to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence.
