Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Mercenary Company, hasn’t been lying about his opinions lately. He repeatedly criticized the Russian army high command for the poor performance of the Ukrainian army. He recently accused the army high command of treason for not providing enough ammunition to the Wagner group.
The Russian Defense Ministry says these allegations are unfounded.
Experts say a fierce power struggle is currently unfolding between Prigozhin and the defense elite. Two experts, who looked into the case of the Wagner group, said in an interview with TV2 that Prigozhin is the most vulnerable.
Niklas Rendboe, an expert at the Danish Defense Academy, said the Defense Ministry is tired of sitting down to table with Prigozhin. Now it is thrown away like a dirty rag.
Disputes between Prigozhin and the ministry date back to 2014, when Wagner’s forces participated in the occupation of Crimea. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was reportedly against the Wagner Group and put a lot of effort into working against the group.
At the beginning of February, it was declared that from now on the Wagner group could no longer join prisoners from Russian prisons. Karen Philippa Larsen, an expert on Russian affairs, said that in her view this means that the balance of power is tipping in favor of the Ministry of Defense. “Prigozhin has become too powerful. There are also many indications that Putin decided to support the traditional defense elite rather than the Wagner group, because he spoke positively about it,” she said.
