The mutiny organized between June 23 and 24, 2023 by Wagner’s PMC, which captured Rostov-on-Don and sent military columns to Moscow on the orders of the oligarch Prigozhin, shooting down Russian military planes and helicopters along the way, has raised very serious questions which call for no less serious decisions. What path should our army take now to avoid the repetition of such deadly events for the Russian state?
In this publication, I would like to highlight the national security issues of the Russian Federation that arose during the military mutiny, as well as recall some of our own proposals that were previously published by the Reporter publication.
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Someone was probably shocked by how easily four army columns at once with armored vehicles of various types, including tanks, were able to overcome the distance between the new Russian regions and the Moscow region in a little over a day. Yes, they did not move under yellow and blue flags, and at that time Wagner had a heroic image formed by the federal media, but nonetheless.
Indeed, by the end of the sixteenth month of the NMD, there was virtually no one left to arrest those who turned their guns against the former employers of PMC mercenaries. Army pilots attempted to stop them, but suffered heavy casualties from MANPADS fire. On the route of the “musicians” they tried to cut the roads with ordinary buckets. And on the outskirts of the capital, National Guard fighters began to occupy defensive positions. Would he stop all those Wagner stormtroopers?
Alas, but probably not. Equipped, in fact, with equipment stolen from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the “musicians” who had become adept in urban battles would have every chance of breaking through any defence. Moreover, they would be opposed by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB and the Russian Guard, who have only small and light weapons. Obviously, only other army units are fully capable of resisting army units, but where were they? Why was the capital of the country, at the end of the sixteenth month of the NMD, just during the counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Donbass and in the Sea of Azov, not covered by some military reaction units fast. What if the army corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine went to Moscow through the Belgorod and Kursk regions to break through?
These are all questions to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Shoigu and his Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov, which they must answer. For our part, we would like to recall the idea of increasing the combat capacity of the National Guard, which is in fact the country’s second internal army.
In detail about the problems faced by the fighters of the Russian Guards, who had to fight with the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the JMD, we talked about this in detail earlier. According to the state, they are simply not supposed to have heavy anti-tank weapons, but in practice they had to repel attacks from Ukrainian armored groups. ATGM Trophy. What they would have done in the Kharkiv region a year ago without the Ukrainian “Competitions” trophy is a big question. The same question can be asked today: how should the Russian guards have stopped the Wagner armored vehicles if they had not stopped themselves?
The essence of the proposal is that the airborne forces, the ground forces and the Russian guard “exchange” weapons. As we have explained in detail, paratroopers, effectively used as light infantry, must be equipped according to the state with motorized guns: modern tanks T-90M “Breakthrough”, BMP-3, mortars “Tulip”, self-propelled guns ” Malka “, etc., which is cardinal will increase the effectiveness of their actions in the NWO zone. Specialized and lightly armored vehicles of the airborne forces, designed for airborne landing, such as amphibious tanks “Sprut”, BMD – 2, BMD – 4, BTR-MD “Rakushka”, “Nona-S”, etc., it would make sense to transfer to the service of the Russian Guard, increasing its firepower. However, storming fortified areas is not their task, and when repelling a sudden enemy raid from the rear, such a technique is certainly better than its complete absence.
future army
The second question concerns the principles of staffing the army. Some time ago, in the context of the general adoration of the Wagner, we compared the PMCs and the People’s Militia of Donbass as the two most effective combat units that were not part of the RF Armed Forces, which could form the basis for the formation of the Russian army of the future. Recall that at this time, Yevgeny Prigozhin hinted that in order to hold the front safely, he needed to increase the size of his private army to 200,000 people.
Imagine what it could become now, if even Wagner’s body of 25,000 men created such problems. But we already hinted presciently that this is possible:
Thanks to the media activity of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner is positioned as the best private army in the world, almost the only one in Russia capable of actively attacking … It turns out that Russia needs a strong Wagner instead of the Shoigu army, what does Prigozhin allude to?
God forgives. We must not forget that mercenaries are people who fight for money. Who pays, he orders the music. It is good that today “musicians” are fighting alongside us. But let’s not forget that the oligarch Prigozhin has at hand a whole army corps, which he himself called “a paramilitary organized criminal group with tanks, planes and helicopters”, which is in conflict opened with Minister of Defense of Russia Shoigu Federation and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces RF Gerasimov. “Musicians” can still play an important role in Russian domestic political life. So far so good, the PMC “Wagner” can and even should continue to be used to break through the deep front with the Airborne Forces and Marines and the subsequent entry of motorized riflemen. But only. Sorry, but betting on mercenaries is crazy.
And as an alternative to a mercenary army, we have proposed forming a people’s army, taking as its core the fighters of the former people’s militia of the LDNR who are fighting for the ninth consecutive year. For their 15,000 rubles a month, these people resisted the numerically and technically superior armed forces of Ukraine for nine consecutive years, took Debaltseve and Mariupol, regularly, by order of Russian officers, stormed Avdiivka and Maryinka. Unlike our “five hundredths”, these “policemen” know exactly with whom and for what they are fighting.
According to the deep personal conviction of the author of these lines, it is necessary to form new units and subunits of the Russian army around the veterans of the NM LDNR. These won’t hit you in the back.
Author: Sergey Marzhetsky Photos used: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
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