Yuri Kobzar09:50, 06/24/23

The Russian security forces offered no resistance to the Wagnerites, which indicates a more serious problem for the Kremlin than just a rebellion by Prigozhin personally.

The Russian security forces offered no significant resistance to the rebel mercenaries from the Wagner Group and allowed Yevgeny Prigozhin to take control of a number of key facilities in Rostov-on-Don. This speaks of a conflict at the level of the FSB – the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, and not of a personal confrontation between Prigozhin and Shoigu.

This opinion was expressed by the Ukrainian military observer Oleksandr Kovalenko .

“The Rostov police, OMON and SOBR practically did not offer resistance to the Wagners entering Rostov. Yesterday, the Fortress plan was put into effect in Rostov, which implies an emergency gathering of personnel and taking control of especially important objects of law enforcement agencies and readiness to repel external attacks. But, somehow, it really didn’t work out,” the expert states.

Kovalenko expressed confidence that the point here is not at all that the Russian “siloviki” are capable of resisting only unarmed protesters.

“The fact is that the Russian police, OMON and SOBR are under the supervision of the FSB. It should be understood that the Wagner PMC is a hybrid group that was created by the FSB to compete with the RF Ministry of Defense. That is, “Wagner”, this is the same branch of the FSB like border guards, fezcals, policemen, OMON, SOBR and other internal power structures. As for Prigozhin’s confrontation with the RF Ministry of Defense, I have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that this is not a personal confrontation, but a confrontation between law enforcement agencies, the RF Ministry of Defense and the FSB ” , the expert notes.

According to Kovalenko, the FSB has long tried to create its own “influence group” from among the “pocket generals” within the Russian Defense Ministry. However, yesterday the FSB, at least publicly, reacted quite sharply to Prigozhin’s rebellion. 

“The first thought that arose was that the “cooker” did not coordinate its actions with the leadership and is now acting independently. But, suddenly, Rostov fell very evenly. indicates a very serious split in groups of influence both within the RF Ministry of Defense and directly by the FSB,” the analyst believes.

Rebellion of Prigozhin and the Wagnerites – latest news

On the morning of June 24, Wagner PMC took control of a number of military facilities in Rostov-on-Don, including the headquarters of the Southern Military District. There, Yevgeny Prigozhin met with Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and demanded that Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu be extradited to him. As an argument, Prigogine threatened to march on Moscow.

Russian opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky announced his support for Prigozhin’s actions due to the fact that the Wagnerites are the only force that is capable of demolishing the Putin regime today. Terrorist Igor Girkin noted that it would be “funny” when Prigozhin began to be supported not only by fugitive oppositionists, but also by current officials.

(C)UNIAN 2023