Of all people, Prigozhin’s nemesis is following in his footsteps: this is Putin’s new mercenary

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Wagner boss Yevgeni Prigozhin (†62), who died in a plane crash at the end of August, was known for his videos in which he complained about Putin, the war in Ukraine and its course. If he were still alive, now would probably be time for an angry video. At the end of last week it was announced who would coordinate “the formation of volunteer units” for the Kremlin in the war against Ukraine. His name: Andrei Troschew (61). Of all people, the man Prigozhin considered a traitor.

As one of the most experienced Wagner commanders, Troshev was a major player in Prigozhin’s mercenary force, but he is said to have warned the Kremlin early on about the Wagner uprising in late June. Two days after Prigozhin called off the uprising just outside Moscow, he threw out his old confidante Troshev.

At a meeting shortly after the uprising, Putin is said to have spoken out in favor of Troshev becoming the new head of the mercenary force. This was reported by the Russian newspaper Kommersant. The proposal therefore failed due to Prigozhin’s opposition.

After the death of the Wagner leadership, Wagner’s independence is finally over. Not only has the Kremlin cut off funding and fired many mercenaries, Troshev’s promotion underlines Moscow’s efforts to integrate the Wagner mercenaries into the Russian regular army. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov (55), Troschew will now work for the Russian Ministry of Defense. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (68) was Prigozhin’s absolute archenemy.

War crimes in Syria

Troschew, nom de guerre ‘Grayhair’, knows all about wars. He was born in 1962 in Saint Petersburg, the city where Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin (70) also comes from. He was once recognized for his bravery in Afghanistan and Chechnya, but was released in 2012 due to serious alcohol problems. As Wagner commander, he also received the Hero of the Russian Federation award for his role in supporting government forces in Syria in 2015 and 2016.

In 2022, Britain put the ex-colonel on the sanctions list, and the EU also imposed sanctions on him. The reason: he was directly involved in “crimes against the Syrian people”.

Now the return to the state ranks. The veteran knows what needs to be done “so that the combat missions are carried out best and most successfully,” Putin praised in a video published Friday showing Troshev and the Russian president after a meeting.

“We are in a post-Prigozhin era”

“The fact that the Kremlin spokesman confirmed that Troshev works for the Russian Ministry of Defense shows that we are in a post-Prigozhin era. “In which the Ministry of Defense takes full control of the so-called special military operation in Ukraine,” Russia expert Natia Seskuria of the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, told the BBC.

German military expert Nico Lange (48) sees Troshev’s appointment as a sign of Putin’s weakness. Troshev’s integration into the Ministry of Defense under Putin’s closest confidante Shoigu means that Russia still needs the mercenaries in Ukraine. Putin’s public appearance with Troschev now serves to show the mercenaries who the new boss is, Lange told ZDF. Troshev’s appointment is mainly intended to make one thing clear: Putin is in a position to keep Wagner and other mercenaries under control.

Source: Blick