Pavel Yevgenyevich Prigozhin, the son and main heir of the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, could have become Wagner’s new strongman after the death of his father. But the twenty-year-old’s maneuvers to take over his father’s assets were not enough, according to the Telegram channel Gray Zone: it is in fact not he who will take over the management of the private military company, but a former executive of Wagner, Andreï Trochev, who joined the Russian Ministry of Defense at the time of the rebellion led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Summoned to the Kremlin on Thursday, September 28, by Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Evkourov, who unofficially manages Wagner’s activities in Africa and the Middle East, Andreï Trochev was named commander of the “volunteer battalions ” in Ukraine, via the military company Redut, controlled by the Ministry of Defense.
Publicized, this meeting with Vladimir Putin shows that the Russian state is asserting itself in regaining control of a group that once escaped it. The appointment of this 61-year-old man is only a show for the Russian power, which, in reality, takes over the helm of the Wagner group and its mercenaries after the death of Prigogine and the pillars of his staff. in a plane crash on August 23.
“Traitor” to Wagner
The military career of Andrei Trochev, alias “Sedoï” (“gray hair”), is known to the general public. Veteran of the war in Afghanistan, then that of Chechnya, in the 1990s, decorated with the Order of the Red Star. He finished his career honorably, at the rank of police colonel in Saint Petersburg, his hometown. But his destiny changed in 2012, in Syria, when he met Evgueni Prigojine thanks to his connections within the Ministry of the Interior. Andreï Trochev becomes administrator of the private military company Wagner, just created. He performs logistical and organizational functions there.
At the end of June 2023, Trochev did not, however, follow Yevgeny Prigozhin and his henchmen in the “march on Moscow”, considered a “betrayal” and a “stab in the back” by Vladimir Putin. On the contrary, he left the Wagner group and chose to join the Kremlin, which would be grateful to him. As early as July, the Russian president cited his name to resume Wagner’s military activities in Ukraine during a meeting with 35 members of the militia, reports the correspondent of the Russian newspaper Kommersant. But Evgueni Prigojine, still in charge of his organization, categorically refuses.
A “bridge” between Wagner and the Ministry of Defense
With Prigozhin dead, the way is clear for Andreï Trochev, who is therefore officially offered the post by the Kremlin. The title of the position is not exactly specified, but Trochev is expected to play a role in the war in Ukraine via the Ministry of Defense, and will surely be at the origin of a wave of recruitment of new mercenaries.
“There are rumors that prisoners are being prepared to go to the front,” specifies the Dossier Center, a collective of investigative journalists financed by the former Russian oligarch in exile Mikhail Khordorkovsky. These soldiers could go and serve in the ranks of Redut in order to develop a Russian counter-offensive in Ukraine”, explain the investigative journalists. Since September 26, the first units of Russian mercenaries have begun to return near Bakhmut, and are already said to be led by “Sedoï” or integrated into battalions detached from the Rosgvardia, the national guard.
“Appointing Trochev to this position is a good choice, because he serves as a bridge between Wagner and the new structure of the Ministry of Defense. He already knows most of the ‘Wagnerians,’ and the Redut militia allows him to recruit mercenaries without them signing an official contract with the Ministry of Defense, which they all hate,” explains the Dossier Center.
Reputed to be an alcoholic – the Russian online newspaper Fontanka said he was taken to the emergency room in 2017 after being found dead drunk on the streets of St. Petersburg, in possession of 5 million rubles (at the time, more than 75,000 euros) and 5,000 dollars in cash – and devoid of charisma, the new commander of the volunteer units in the Donbass will have to demonstrate authority against the Russian mercenaries, who consider him a “traitor” for not having followed Yevgeny Prigozhin in his attempt to rebellion against the Kremlin. According to an investigation by the Russian investigative site Important Stories, the morale of the former mercenaries is at its lowest: they feel disowned by the Russian state. Prigozhin had become the “personification of a demand for justice and honesty in the understanding of the ‘party of war'”, Russian journalist Dmitri Kolezev wrote on his Telegram channel. But, for Vladimir Putin, what does it matter: with Trochev in charge, Wagner’s troublemakers are no longer likely to challenge his authority.