The death of Jevgeni Prigožin, the director of the mercenary company Wagner, has effects both in Belarus and in Africa, Valtonen estimates.
Ykkösaamu’s guest foreign minister Elina Valtonen commented the Wagner manager Yevgeny Prigozhin death by stating that the current Russian leadership does not spare any means to ensure its dominant position.
– Violence and the liquidation of potential competitors is part of the Russian leadership’s toolbox, states Valtonen.
Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary army Wagner, died on Wednesday when the private plane carrying him crashed on the way from Moscow to St. Petersburg. According to unconfirmed information, the plane was deliberately brought down with explosives. According to Valtonen, Finland is still monitoring the situation and the conclusions about what happened are becoming more detailed.
– To me, this partly tells about the emergency and the crisis of Russia’s authoritarian system, comments Valtonen.
The promises made to Prigozhin were broken
According to Valtonen, the aftermath of Prigožin’s attempted coup in June is still shrouded in mystery. Wagner’s forces were marching towards Moscow until Prigozhin grabbed the president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to offer a treaty and put an end to the rebellion.
The foreign minister says that it is difficult to assess the motives of the Russian leadership.
– It is unclear what Prigozhin has been promised in exchange for ending the rebellion. Whatever these promises were, they now seem to have been betrayed, Valtonen says.
The future of the Wagner mercenary company led by Prigozhin is now open. However, the death of the leader of the mercenary army is reflected widely.
Until now, the Wagner group has been strongly personified by the figure of Yevgeni Prigožin.
– Now we will see what the future of Wagner, which has moved to Belarus, will be without Prigozhin and other Wagner leaders who were killed. There are certainly also influences on Wagner’s activities outside of Europe, especially in Africa, where it has been Russia’s central instrument of influence.
Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen is a guest of Ykkösaamu on TV 1 and Radio 1 at 10:05.