Prigozhin Begins To 'Carve Up' Russia

Wagner fighters leave Bakhmut for a reason.

The head of the Wagner PMC, Evgeny Prigozhin, gave a new interview. He once again publicly highlighted his conflict with the Russian Ministry of Defence.

It's about discrediting the Defense Ministry, which is caused by settling personal scores between Prigozhin and the leadership of the agency - Minister Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Gerasimov. The conflict between them arose over money - Prigozhin's activities are primarily aimed at obtaining it. War is his second priority and politics his third.

Contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense allowed Prigozhin to receive 5 billion rubles and part of the 10 billion rubles that were allocated for the magic pyramids installed in the Belgorod region. Fighters of the Russian Volunteer Corps carefully bypassed such pyramids and entered the region.

Prigozhin is interested in money. The conflict with the governor of St Petersburg, Beglov, arose from a confrontation over gaining control of the city's budget, while the confrontation with Shoigu arose from a struggle over the budget of the Ministry of Defence.

After the outbreak of a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, Prigozhin offered his services to Moscow. The Russian authorities agreed. The conflict with the Ministry of Defence over resources only escalated then. Prigozhin insisted on priority supply to his unit and a certain autonomy for the bandit formations. He uses his powerful media structure as a tool to put pressure on the Ministry of Defence. This is the anatomy of the conflict.

Prigozhin then used his media resources to put pressure on Putin as well. When Putin doesn't want to do what Prigozhin wants, phrases about the grandfather-weirdo appear.

Subsequently, the conflict escalated. I think Prigozhin is aware that Russia is losing the war. As a result of the fighting, Moscow will suffer a heavy defeat and turmoil. Prigozhin finds this acceptable. The turmoil will cause a Mafia war that will include the division of territory and property.

Now Prigozhin has taken a pause for two months and is withdrawing the Wagner PMC from the battlefield, since he understands that the Ukrainian offensive will completely crush his grouping. Meanwhile, Prigozhin expects to keep the force until the moment when it will be useful to him for use either in Africa or in Russia. Prigozhin will be involved in partitioning Russian territory and property when the turmoil starts there.

Igor Yakovenko, Glavred