In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the Wagner Group, its founders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, and the mutiny they started on 23 Jun 2023. The event marked the climax of the Wagner Group–Russian MoD conflict, and finally led to the deaths of Prigozhin and Utkin.
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Wagner has been used in many conflicts around the world, but they came to global prominence during the war in Donbas in 2014-2015. Wagnerites helped the Donbas separatists fight against the Ukrainians during the conflict, which helped Putin to “outsource” the insurrection.
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The group doesn’t have any central ideology, but many of its members and leaders have ties to various neo—Nazi movements in Russia. For example, Wagner leader Dmitry Utkin had several Nazi symbols tattooed on his body. Neo—nazi group Rusich has also fights as part of Wagner.
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Wherever Wagner goes, war crimes follows: Prigozhin’s troops have raped women in Mali, killed and tortured civilians in Ukraine and tortured soldiers in Syria. In Russia, they are (in)famous for hiring prisoners and then sending them to the Ukrainian meat grinders.
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The group has their own brutal rules, and the hierarchy is based on Russia’s prison system (Prigozhin himself spent 10 years in prison). Sexual violence is very common, and Wagner is known for their brutal sledgehammer murders.
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Some have suggested that Wagner members should be divided into two categories—the “cannon fodder”, including prison recruits that are used as baits and to deplete Ukraine of resources like artillery shells,and the professional soldiers who focus on more specialized missions.
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US officials have suggested that Prigozhin had longstanding disputes with the the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) for years before the full—scale invasion. At the same time, he presented himself as a populist figure confronting the “corrupt military establishment”.
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In May 2023, Prigozhin even warned that Russia could face a revolution similar to the 1917 one, warning the Kremlin of potential uprisings by “soldiers & their loved ones”.According to ISW,this increased his influence within the ultranationalist Russian milblogger community.
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The tensions between Prigozhin and MoD reached a critical juncture during the battle of Bakhmut. Prigozhin was publicly voicing his dissatisfaction over ammunition supply, while threatening to withdraw his troops unless his demands were met.
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After Wagner troops withdrew from Bakhmut, Prigozhin claimed that the military attempted to assault them, and the group even captured a Russian commander who, while intoxicated, allegedly ordered the attack against Prigozhin’s troops.
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According to US intelligence agencies, Wagner and Prigozhin had started planning the rebellion weeks before its execution, and allegedly Prigozhin made the decision after Russian MoD decided to integrate Wagner into the Russian military.
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On 23 Jun 2023, Yevgeny published a video in which he finally told the truth:that the Kremlin’s justification for invading Ukraine was based on falsehoods & that the real reason was to serve the interests of the Russian elites.He also said that Ukraine wasn’t the aggressor.
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Prigozhin then declared the start of an armed conflict against the MoD on his press service’s Telegram channel, calling upon people interested in joining the conflict against the MoD and its leadership, especially Shoigu and Gerasimov.
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Wagner troops quickly captured Rostov—on—Don, with the majority of the local population being supportive of the mutiny. Prigozhin set up his headquarters in the city, and quickly sent two convoys of Wagner forces towards Moscow. The second convoy was led by Dmitry Utkin.
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Moscow immediately panicked, taking down Wagner billboards, allegedly moved Putin from Moscow to St. Petersburg, and even called Kazakstan for military assistance in case Russian military failed to put down the rebellion. Interestingly, Kazakstan refused the request.
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FSB raided Wagner headquarters, where they allegedly found cash, gold bars, handguns and lavish Wagner memorabilia like sledgehammers. Leaked photos of Prigozhin wearing various funny looking disguises were also published by various media.
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But the rebellion died as quickly as it was born. Prigozhin quickly realized that he didn’t get the support he was looking for, & the gang started negotiating, with Belarussian dictator Lukashenko working as the mediator. Then, on 24 Jun,Wagner withdrew from Rostov—On—Dov.
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Soon after, Russian authorities said they had dropped all charges against Prigozhin and others involved in the rebellion, and the construction of Wagner camps in Belarus had begun. Prigozhin also relocated there, and finally Russian MoD took over his group.
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But Prigozhin’s betrayal was not forgotten. On 23 Aug 2023, Prigozhin, Utkin and eight other Wagner figures were killed in a plane crash. Allegedly, the assassination was called by Putin’s old friend and former intelligence officer Nikolai Patrushev.
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Anonymous US intelligences sources have claimed that Army General Sergey Surovikin had prior knowledge about the rebellion. Also, WSJ claimed that FSB knew about the rebellion two days before it was scheduled to happen, and this discovery led to its premature start.
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Wagner was eventually integrated into the Russian MoD, its brutal African operations were rebranded as “The African Corps of the Russian Defense Ministry” & the whole incident of a competing warlord trying to take over the kleptocratic Russian state was quickly forgotten.
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To conclude, Prigozhin was a powerful warlord & Putin ally, who decided to attempt a power grab after his adversaries started making moves against him by taking away his lucrative businesses. Surprisingly,the incident had very little effect on the Kremlin’s power structure.
22/22
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American social media personality, Tim Pool (@Timcast). He’s best-known for being funded by the Kremlin, his right-wing media empire, his connections to several American conspiracy theorists, and for his cool beanie.
1/23
Tim Pool rose to fame during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests, which he livestreamed together with a former realtor, Henry Ferry. He was one of the pioneers of doing livestreams where he also interacted with the audience and even let them direct him on the ground.
2/23
Pool’s footage was aired on NBC and other mainstream networks, and Time dubbed him as “the eyes of the movement”. In 2011, Pool described himself as “an activist 100%”, stating that he doesn’t consider himself a journalist. A year later things had changed…
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American politician, Jill Stein (@DrJillStein). She’s best-known for her visits to Moscow, bids for the US presidency, blaming of NATO for the war in Ukraine, and for her inability to condemn Vladimir Putin as a war criminal.
1/23
Stein’s background is in medicine, and she graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1979. During the 90s Stein turned to activism and subsequently received various environmental awards for her work. Stein began her political career by running for governor of Massachusetts...
2/23
...in 2002, but only got 3,5% of the total vote. Her following campaigns were also massive failures, and the only election in which she managed to secure a seat was the local legislative body in Lexington. But that didn’t stop Jill, as in 2012 she decided to run for...
In today’s #vatniksoup I’ll introduce a Russian filmmaker, Anastasia Trofimova. She’s best-known for her latest controversial documentary “Russians at War”, and for working as a producer for Russian state-funded media outlet RT.
1/19
Soft power has been part of the Kremlin’s hybrid warfare for a long time. It refers to the “ability to get what you want through attraction rather than through coercion” and which can “be cultivated through relations with allies, economic assistance, and cultural exchanges.”
2/19
Russia has been using soft power to sow division and distrust in the West for decades. Documentaries like Ukraine on Fire offer a revisionist and pro-Kremlin view on what happened in Kyiv and in Ukraine in 2014. It was directed by the Russian master…
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss why I think it’s important for Ukraine & for Europe that Donald Trump does not become the next president of the US. I’ll share my insights on how Trump has been undermining democracy and supporting authoritarian leaders around the world.
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First of all, I think Trump supports Russia more than Ukraine. Trump has a long history of doing business with the Russians, and he’s even held private meetings with Putin and other high-ranking Russian officials while sharing highly classified information with them.
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In addition, Trump withheld a 400 million aid to Ukraine because Zelenskyy wouldn’t help him dig dirt on the Biden family. He also “watered down” the toughest penalties the U.S. had imposed on Russian entities after Putin annexed Crimea in 2014.
As there's clearly not much to say about the debate other than Trump was deranged and he'd clearly abandon Ukraine and appease Russia, I'm just gonna post the best memes and posts about the whole thing.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the Kremlin’s funding of Tennessee-based media company TENET Media. TENET Media is best-known for their promotion of Russian narratives and for strong support for Donald Trump in the upcoming 2024 US elections.
1/20
First, it’s worth stating that the funding originated from Kremlin-controlled RT, and that the funding was masked through shell companies in countries like Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Mauritius, with the money being described as payments for electronics.
2/20
The two individuals involved from RT, identified as Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). These two also instructed the content creators.
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