Facts: Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner group
The Wagner group is a private mercenary company that has long operated with unofficial connections to the Russian state leadership.
Its top leader and main financier is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former restaurateur from St. Petersburg and now oligarch, who with his close ties to Vladimir Putin and his own business empire has acted in the interests of the Kremlin in various ways.
A conflict has been going on during the Ukraine war between Prigozhin and Russia’s military leadership – Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
On June 23, Prigozhin announced that he would begin an armed march through Russia toward Moscow with 25,000 troops. The next day, Wagner forces entered and took over the city of Rostov-on-Don, whereupon they continued to roll north in a column that is said to have come as close as 20 miles from Moscow before the uprising was suddenly called off.
A settlement was reached with Belarus Russia-allied leader Aleksandr Lukashenko at the negotiating table. They agreed that Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner soldiers involved would receive impunity and security guarantees, as well as free passage to Belarus, which Russian President Vladimir Putin was said to have promised.
What the settlement entails exactly – or what the leaders have quietly worked out – is not known.
Nearly three weeks after the Wagner group’s short-lived coup attempt, questions are piling up about where a number of former key players in Moscow’s top military leadership actually are today.
General Sergei Surovikin, who was previously the former supreme commander of the Ukraine war, but in January was replaced by General Gerasimov, is one of them.
Surovikin last appeared on June 23 in a video, in which he called on the Wagner forces to lay down their weapons. Since then he has not been seen in public. Sources at the Russian Ministry of Defense stated at the end of June to The Moscow Times that Surovikin was arrested after siding with Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin during the uprising against the Kremlin.
The Wagner leader has consistently praised Surovikin, who, according to intelligence in the West, would also have been privy to his rebellion plans, according to The New York Times. However, the information has been denied by the Kremlin – which instead announced this week that Surovikin is currently on leave.
“He is resting and not available at the moment,” said Andrey Kartapolov, head of the committee on defense issues in the lower house of the Russian parliament, in a comment, AP writes.
Reportedly fired
Another general who has not been seen in public since the Wagner uprising at the end of June is Ivan Popov.
Popov said in a Telegram voice message earlier this week that he was fired after criticizing the country’s military leadership for insufficient support and for backstabbing his own army, according to CNN.
During Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, General Popov held a high-ranking role as commander of forces fighting in Zaporizhzhya.
According to the Telegram channel Gray Zone, which has close ties to the Wagner Group, Popov is said to have expressed his criticism to the military leader Valery Gerasimov – and then to have been immediately dismissed.
The Kremlin has not commented on the criticism made by Popov in the audio file – nor has it provided any information about the general’s current whereabouts.
Details: General is said to have been killed
The fate of the high-ranking Russian general Oleg Tsokov is also unclear.
Tsokov, who during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine served in the Russian ground forces as deputy commander of the southern military district, is said to have been killed on July 11 during an attack on a hotel with Russian military commanders in the occupied Ukrainian port city of Berdyansk, writes BBC.
The information surrounding Tsokov’s death has been reported by Russian state television as well as by a large number of pro-Kremlin military bloggers – but met with silence from the Kremlin.
If the information is correct, Oleg Tsokov is the ninth Russian general to be killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.
The whereabouts of the main character in the midsummer weekend uprising attempt, the Wagner conductor Yevgeny Prigozhin, is also shrouded in obscurity. Prigozhin, who in an agreement between Putin and Belarusian leader Lukashenko was guaranteed a free lease to Belarus, has not been photographed in the country since the agreement.
However, his private plane has flown several times between Belarus and Moscow and St. Petersburg.
According to The Wall Street Journal 13 high-ranking Russian military personnel have been arrested and another 15 suspended or fired since the Wagner uprising during the Midsummer weekend.