By: Teresa Gong
Yevgeny Prigozhin once considered a loyal ally of Putin, recently turned against the Russian president, openly criticizing his actions and policies.
One possible reason for Prigozhin’s change of stance may be his own personal ambitions and desire for power. As a successful entrepreneur with close ties to the Kremlin, Prigozhin may have aspired to increase his influence and play a more significant role in Russian politics. This ambition could have led to clashes with Putin, who has a history of carefully managing and centralizing power.
Under Putin’s rule, Russia’s economy has become wildly unequal, with a small group of handpicked oligarchs benefiting greatly while the majority of the population struggles. This consolidation of power and wealth has reinforced Putin’s authority, solidifying his position as a latter-day czar in an autocratic police state.
“The system Putin built is very stable,” a Western ambassador told Roger Cohen in a New York Times interview this month. “But if I woke up one morning and saw tanks on the street, I would not be totally astonished.”
As the war in Ukraine unfolded, Prigozhin witnessed what he perceived as a mismanagement of the conflict. The loss of Russian lives and the suffering endured by civilians left him infuriated. Prigozhin became vocal about his dissatisfaction, openly criticizing the incompetence and half-hearted measures implemented by Russia’s military establishment. His frustration stemmed from a sense of betrayal, as he believed that Putin had failed to address the true gravity of the situation.
The toll of the conflict was evident in the staggering number of casualties suffered by Wagner Group fighters. Prigozhin himself claimed that in the arduous battle for the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, Wagner lost 20,000 troops. These numbers speak to the extent to which Prigozhin and his fighters were committed to the cause, willingly sacrificing their lives in service to their country, or rather, to Putin’s vision of the motherland.
“Putin likes competition. He has liked putting pressure on [Defense Minister] Shoigu and enjoyed the theater,” Dmitri A. Muratov, the Nobel-prize-winning editor of the shuttered independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, said in an interview. “Meanwhile, the elite around Putin don’t give a damn for their country, they’re just afraid for their lives.”