Yevgeny Prigozhin’s “Wagner” is “premièred” in Belarus. The mercenary company is beginning operations in the country of President Alexander Lukashenko, Vladimir Putin’s key ally, following Saturday’s “near-coup” in Russia. A military camp with a capacity to house 8,000 Wagner mercenaries is currently being built, the independent Belarusian newspaper Werstka reported. The work started in Osipovichi, 200 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, they say. The start of work coincides with rumors of Prigozhin’s presence in Minsk and raises questions related to the war between Russia and Ukraine. Wagner, which has been engaged in the Battle of Bakhmut for months, now has a home base in northern Ukraine. There are enough questions about the events of Saturday June 24th.
“Putin and the Russian establishment are certainly weakened. It could be the beginning of his end. Some analysts saw Prigozhin’s march as a positive event for the West, but the seizure of power by some hawks should worry us more,” General Luigi Chiapperini said. The Afghan-born former multinational contingent commander and member of the Army Studies Center told Adnkronos about the prospects following the alleged coup attempt in Russia.
“What looked like an attempted coup can be read from different angles,” explains General Chiapperini. “It is likely that Putin’s magic circle is starting to show some cracks. Certainly the fact that it was not possible to avoid and foresee Prigozhin’s moves.” denotes the fragility of the Russian home front, with initial verbal diatribes that then led to military action on Russian territory. It is known that there were disagreements between the Wagner supporters and the Russian military summit, but a clash was unlikely. So what happened? is extremely worrying. The stop of the so-called March for Justice towards Moscow was interrupted, but there could be a different interpretation.”
Indeed, according to General Chiapperini, “the whole affair is strange, to say the least, when you see how Prigozhin’s columns were advancing towards Moscow and were only fought by a few aircraft, while the security forces remained rather passive. Then the doubt arises whether that was the case of the indescribable Prigozhin.” could be a “Maskirovka”, i.e. a staging to attack Ukraine again from the north. Some of the mercenaries who were “pardoned” and “exiled” to Belarus with all their weapons therefore raise doubts.”
“It would be a master plan of deception. I consider it an unlikely but not impossible evolution of the situation given the many farces we are witnessing,” General Chiapperini continues. “Aggravating the situation is the lack of information about the fate of the.” Chief of Defense Staff Gerasimov was hated by Prigozhin. Now it could be the turn of Surovikin, a hawk closest to Prigozhin. The next few days will show us what really happened.”
Now, “Prigozhin is left with the remnants of his militias, or a mad splinter whose movements should alarm everyone, or,” or if it was truly staged, “again, a useful if dangerous tool in Putin’s hands for future operational planning.” Location or geostrategic –” He concludes: “Moscow has again received indications of proximity from Beijing, but in these fluid situations the balance is unstable and can easily be broken.”
In the meantime, after a few days of waiting, Wagner’s activities have also been resumed in Russia. The Wagner PMC center in Novosibirsk, which had been closed since Saturday, has reopened and resumed its recruitment activities, an employee said, quoted by the Russian news agency Tass. The advertising posters were again placed at the entrance to the offices. The headquarters of the mercenary company in St. Petersburg “function normally”, wrote Wagner himself in a message published by Telegram. “Despite the events that have occurred, the center continues to operate in the normal mode in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation,” the Wagner Group office said in a statement. Wagner “dedicated himself to the future of Russia,” the statement said, thanking the group’s supporters.