Prigozhin’s revenge Putin propagandist attacks Kremlin officials – not without consequences

Yevgeny Prigozhin has been dead for two months, but his ghost is still alive in Russian politics. The mercenary leader, who gave Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s army their biggest success yet in Ukraine by capturing Bakhmut, had repeatedly criticized Russia’s military leadership. And he still does.

As the American think tank Institute for War Studies (ISW) reports, businessman Kirill Kachur has now attracted the attention of political Moscow with a request. He submitted this to Russia’s top corruption investigation agency, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. Kachur wanted to know what actually happened to several complaints from Prigozhin that the Wagner founder had sent to the authorities before the uprising of his mercenaries in June.

The commission was established in 2011 and is primarily responsible for investigating corruption, particularly in civilian security services such as the Russian police, but also the military. Shortly before his involuntary death, Prigozhin had demanded that authorities investigate top military officials. According to him, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and, together with him, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, are guilty of abuse of office.

Secretary of Defense is a career changer

In comments to the Supreme Investigative Authority, Prigozhin accused the two of “genocide of the Russian people and the murder of tens of thousands of Russian citizens, as well as the surrender of Russian territory to the enemy.” He was referring to the devastating course of the war in Ukraine for the regular Russian armed forces, which was characterized by massive setbacks and high personnel losses.

The diadochi battles between Prigozhin, Shoigu and Gerasimov have always gone beyond personal animosity; they have had ideological undertones. Prigozhin had long expressed his dissatisfaction with those responsible at the Ministry of Defense. In the months shortly before Bakhmut’s capture in May 2023, he expressed his hatred and contempt for the generals almost daily on social networks, and at least as often called for their dismissal. Prigozhin, like many other ultranationalist Russians, called for tougher action in Ukraine.

Not surprisingly, Shoigu in particular became Prigozhin’s target. The Secretary of Defense is a career changer in the military. His military expertise is inversely proportional to the many medals he likes to wear on his lapel during public appearances. Before the 66-year-old took over the highest office in the military, Shoigu, a trained engineer, had never held a major position in the armed forces (but he did have a series of military pseudo-titles that he received in his role as Minister of Civil Protection). He also did not serve in the Russian army.

“Second strongest army in Ukraine”

Shoigu is considered a careerist. It is said that he is always willing to do anything to please the respective government leaders (earning him the nickname ‘the Chameleon’). He is completely loyal to you. When the Kremlin ruler appointed him defense minister in 2012, he was tasked with modernizing a military plagued by corruption, dilapidated equipment and poor morale. But he immediately reversed the reforms of his predecessor Anatoly Serdyukov and reinstated dismissed generals. Shoigu preferred to build on the proven, rather than make himself unpopular with innovations.

The successful occupation and annexation of Crimea in 2014 earned him favor with Putin. The operation was considered a great success by the Kremlin. The brutal intervention of Russian forces in Syria also strengthened Shoigu’s military and especially political reputation. He established himself as a key pillar in Putin’s inner circle. Moreover, the qualified engineer also polished the dusty reputation of the Russian army with numerous technological initiatives.

Until 2022. Then Putin, with Shoigu’s support, started the war in Ukraine. Instead of falling in three days, as Kremlin strategists had planned, Ukraine did not fall at all. On the contrary, Kiev’s forces have inflicted significant defeats on Russia’s superiority, driving them out of parts of the country and exposing the weaknesses of the “second strongest army in the world, which is only now the second strongest army in Ukraine” , as the Americans said. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken recently said derisively.

The Russian army became a laughing stock, Shoigu and Gerasimov became the faces of the debacle. Prigozhin took advantage of their weakness to advance his own interests. Experts assume that the warlord spoke out against the generals because he wanted to see himself in an important position within the War Ministry. With his public tirades and ultimately the failed mutiny, he stuck his finger in the wound of the Putin system: the despot values ​​loyalty more than expertise. And because Prigozhin probably overloaded the former, he died in his private plane on August 23.

There is a lot of support for Putin’s war course

As the ISW analyzes, there are Russians who sympathized with Prigozhin’s criticism of the Russian military leadership – and still do. Shoigu and Gerasimov’s work as warlords is still viewed with skepticism by part of the population, and would likely stir even more resentment if the Kremlin’s propaganda did not make Russians believe the invasion of Ukraine was a success.

But Putin remains adamantly loyal to his confidants in the military leadership. Just a few days ago he visited Gerasimov at the headquarters of the Southern Military District, from where the Russian army is waging its war in Ukraine. Apparently the people are not against the “tsar”.

When asked: “Do you personally support the actions of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine or not?”, the vast majority answered “yes.” Even after about twenty months of brutal fighting and major losses in their own ranks, 73 percent of Russians support their ruler’s war course and the actions of his generals. The independent Russian opinion research institute Levada arrived at this value in a national survey.

The few critical voices in the country do not come (or did not come) from opponents of the war, but from ruthless hardliners such as Igor Girkin or Prigozhin. “A certain camp within the Russian information spectrum continues to identify with Prigozhin and his hyper-nationalist warmongering,” write the American analysts at ISW. “This means that anti-Shoigu ideologues will likely continue to voice their criticism of the Defense Ministry and military leadership.”

Kirill Kachur has already discovered that criticism in Russia is very dangerous. Russia’s highest anti-corruption authority has placed him on the international wanted list: he will go to prison for embezzlement and bribery worth millions of euros and for forming a criminal organization.