Intelligence expert explains lenient sentence after attempted coup in Russia: ‘Putin may think he needs Prigozhin’

class=”sc-29f61514-0 jbwksb”>

Russia has been in crisis mode since Saturday’s attempted coup. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin (62) managed to reach the outskirts of Moscow with his mercenaries in less than 24 hours. Now Prigozhin is said to be in exile in Belarus. The Kremlin’s reaction seems extremely mild. Because: On Tuesday, the government announced that the trial against him would be stopped given the end of the “criminal offences”. Secret service expert Andrei Soldierov (47) explains to the German “Spiegel” why Prigozhin could have escaped unpunished.

“There are exactly two people like Prigozhin in Russian politics: Ramzan Kadyrov (46) and Yevgeny Prigozhin (62) himself,” says Soldierov. The expert doubts that anyone else dares to take the actions of these two men as role models. So Putin probably sees no opportunity for imitation by opponents.

In addition, Putin and the head of the Wagner Group had a personal relationship. “There are some indications that Putin still thinks he needs Prigozhin.” The discontinued criminal case would underline that. According to the expert, if Putin had wanted to expel Prigozhin from Russia definitively and guaranteed, the criminal case would not have been dropped. Now the Wagner Group could even continue to exist.

Crisis of confidence in the Russian army

According to the expert, Prigozhin never intended to overthrow Putin. “First, he has not personally spoken out against Putin, and second, he has not published an appeal.” Prigozhin’s action was mainly directed against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (68). What surprised the experts: when Prigozhin demanded the transfer of Shoigu and Valeri Gerasimov (67), Chief of Staff of the Russian leadership, in the courtyard of the Rostov Army Staff, his deputy Vladimir Alexeyev (61) agreed: “Take them! “. This testifies to an incredible crisis of confidence within the Russian military.

According to Soldierov, it is still unclear whether Putin will keep his defense minister in office. According to the expert, Putin would do well not to fire Shoigu. Things are not so bad on the front lines, and as long as politicians are weak and unpopular, they pose no threat to the president.

Soldierov believes that the Russian secret service FSB could have known about Wagner’s plan even before the coup attempt. “Wagner is a large organization and the FSB has a number of its own people in the private army.” However, the question is whether this information was also passed on to Putin. (A)

Source: Blick