A mercenary force led by Russian military intelligence is likely to fill the void left by the Wagner Group, whose founder Yevgeny Prigozhin reportedly died in a plane crash Wednesday.
With the group now without a leader – as at least seven others, including a high-ranking Wagner commander, are also believed to have perished in the crash – other private Russian security “firms” are expected to compete to replace him.
The most likely candidate to take over Wagner’s mission and business assets is Redut, a mercenary group controlled by Russian intelligence that began as a deal between oligarchs with Kremlin ties and top military commanders, The Telegraph reported.
In testimony to the UK House of Commons foreign affairs committee last month, a former senior Russian military officer and Wagner fighter said Redut was created to protect factories that had been acquired by Gennady Timchenko, a former KGB agent and Putin-linked oligarch.
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death has opened the door for other Russian private military groups to take over the Wagner Group’s mission and business assets. AP
“The godfather of this project, Timchenko, was proposed by the Russian military,” wrote the former KGB officer.
Operation Redut was initially not a large operation, according to the former intelligence officer, who said Redut was deployed in Syria in two teams, one of 55 men and the other of 65, although that began to change during the invasion of Ukraine, when Russian troops. set out to find mercenaries to reduce their dependence on the Wagner Group.
Who is the head of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin?
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin as a talented businessman following the plane crash that apparently killed him.
Prigozhin is the owner of the private military contractor Wagner Group.
Prigozhin planned to arrest the top Russian military officers during his coup attempt.
Flames engulf plane after crash.TELEGRAM/ @grey_zone/AFP via Getty Images
Prigozhin and his mercenaries did not face charges and were instead exiled despite leading an armed rebellion against the Kremlin.
Prigozhin began his career as a petty criminal – he was convicted of robbery and assault in 1981 and served 12 years in prison.
The location where the plane crashed.
He criticized Russia’s Defense Ministry as incompetent and accused it of withholding weapons and ammunition from its troops, who are fighting on behalf of Russia in Ukraine.
Prigozhin has been indicted in the United States for meddling in the 2016 presidential election through his infamous internet “troll factory”.
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The group, led by Wagner’s former intelligence chief Anatoly Karazi, has since recruited leaders from Prigozhin’s fighting forces in the wake of the aborted uprising led by Prigozhin in June.
Andrei Troshev, Wagner’s top commander after Tuesday’s plane crash, has reportedly taken a job at Redut, which is not the only mercenary group looking to pick up where Wagner left off.
Prighozin is believed to have died in a plane crash on Wednesday, raising questions about the future of the Wagner Group. TELEGRAM/ @grey_zone/AFP via Getty Images
At least seven others, including a high-ranking Wagner commander, are also believed to have died in the crash.TELEGRAM/ @grey_zone/AFP via Getty Images
Others include a private military group called Convoy, which was created by the Kremlin-appointed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, in 2022.
The group, which takes its name from the Cossack bodyguard for the Tsar, the Imperial Convoy, is led by Konstantin Pikalov, another former Prigohzin crony, and has already fought in Ukraine’s Kherson region.
The group has recently advertised on its Telegram channel for work in Africa, where the Wagner Group runs a mission.
Meanwhile, there are also military groups run by companies including Fakel and Potok, which are funded by Russian state-owned hydrocarbon giant Gazprom.
Gazprom has not publicly acknowledged the existence of the pair of private military groups and some reports suggest they have recently been incorporated into Redut.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
