The short-lived mutiny launched in late June by the Wagner Group and the relentless criticism of the Russian Ministry of Defence by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin appears to have emboldened some of Russia’s officers.
Michael Clarke, Visiting Professor in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, noted how the Kremlin is still reeling from the Wagner Group’s attempted coup, as consequences continue to emerge.
Most notably, he said, “seeing Prigozhin get clean away with what to most Russian commanders looked like an attempted coup, seems to have created open season on officers’ critiques of the command structure”.
Major General Ivan Popov, who led the 58th Combined Arms troops fighting near Zaporizhzhia, claimed in mid-July to have been fired from his post after telling Moscow’s military leadership “the truth” about the situation on the Ukrainian front.
In a voice message published by Andrey Gurulyov, a retired Russian colonel general and Duma deputy, Maj. Gen. Popov didn’t name members of the military leadership as he said: “As many commanders of regiments and divisions said today, our army was not broken through the front, but our most senior commander hit us in the back, thus treacherously beheading the army in the most difficult period.”
Mr Prigozhin, who led the mutiny between June 23 and 24, doesn’t appear to have paid the price for his open rebellion against the Kremlin.
Thanks to a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Mr Prigozhin and his men didn’t face criminal charges for their participation in the attempted coup.
While the troops were given the choice to go to Belarus, return home or join the Russian Army, Mr Prigozhin reportedly agreed to go into exile in Mr Lukashenko’s nation.
However, the warlord is known to have been over the past few weeks both in St Petersburg and Belarus.
In a video from a Belarusian camp where thousands of Wagner men have been gathering in recent weeks, Mr Prigozhin could be heard making yet another dig at the Russian defence command, as he said of the ongoing war in Ukraine: “What is happening at the front now is a disgrace in which we do not need to participate.”
In previous months, as his troops were fighting in Bakhmut, Mr Prigozhin had lashed out at Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov, accused among other things of not providing enough ammunition to his men.
In an analysis penned for the Sunday Times, Professor Clarke said others fighting on the frontline are now openly pleading the Kremlin to receive more munitions.
He wrote: “And surely groups of conscripts and reservists alike post regular, pathetic appeals on social media to ‘Vladimir Vladimirovich’ (President Putin) to do something about their poor equipment, lack of ammunition, lousy food and even lousier officers.”
The loyalty of some of the commanders of Russia’s elite Airborne Forces, historically close to Wagner, appears to be doubted by the Kremlin, the expert added.
