Topline
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of a possible civil war—accusing the mercenary Wagner Group of “treason,” and promising to extinguish its rebellion on Saturday—as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine becomes suddenly, violently divided from within.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the Wagner Group of “treason.”
Key Facts
Russia’s Federal Security Service said Friday that Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, which had been fighting with Russian troops against Ukraine, had incited an “armed rebellion” after Prigozhin accused the Russian military of attacking one of the group’s camps.
The Wagner Group subsequently claimed control over Russian military facilities in Voronezh and Rostov—Russia’s logistical hub for its invasion of Ukraine—on Saturday before marching toward Moscow, according to CNN.
Prigozhin—who later ordered his troops to halt their march—accepted a peace deal with that moves him and his troops to Belarus, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, while neither Prigozhin nor his troops will face charges.
Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch with previously close ties to Putin, has increasingly challenged the Russian leader’s authority and is seen by some as angling to challenge Putin’s leadership.
Just this week, he accused Russian military leaders of lying to the public over Russia’s justification for invading Ukraine, suggesting that Ukraine and NATO posed no threat to Russian national security, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The group also claimed Russian soldiers shot Wagner paramilitaries in Bakhmut earlier this month, after Prigozhin—who threatened to have his troops leave the city—said “fat cat” Moscow failed to support its frontline troops.
Prigozhin then threatened to march some of his 25,000 troops on Moscow—which prompted Putin to warn his country Saturday of a possible civil war—invoking the 1917 attempted coup that led to the Bolsheviks taking over Russia’s government—with Putin vowing to “not let this happen again” (by later Saturday, Prigozhin said he had called off the march on Moscow to avoid Russian casualties).
Most observers are calling the conflict, as the New York Times put it, “the most dramatic challenge to Mr. Putin’s rule since he was named Russia’s acting president on Dec. 31, 1999.”
Tangent
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested the Wagner Group is exposing Russia’s “full-scale weakness.” An Eastern European government official told the Wall Street Journal that a conflict between Russia and the Wagner Group makes Russia “less dangerous for the rest of the world.” The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said the rebellion could “cause irreparable damage” to Putin’s leadership, according to the Associated Press.
Key Background
Prigozhin’s Wagner Group—designated as a “transnational criminal organization” by the U.S.—has been linked with Moscow in repeated military conflicts, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and “exerted influence on behalf of Moscow in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Mali and Mozambique,” according to the Times.
Further Reading
Russia Launches Criminal Case Against Wagner Group Chief Over ‘Incitement To Armed Rebellion’ (Forbes)
Russia’s Putin Orders Military To Crush Wagner Power Grab, Calls It Treason (Wall Street Journal)
