X Close

Did Yevgeny Prigozhin lose his nerve?

Prigozhin speaks in Rostov-on-Don on Saturday 24th June. Credit: Wagner/Getty

June 25, 2023 - 1:30pm

When Lenin commented that “there are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen,” he had not considered how much can occur in the space of a day. 

Late on Friday, mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin announced a “march for justice” by his fighters in response to an alleged deadly attack by the Russian military on Wagner troops in Ukraine. Yesterday, however, he went from leading an insurrection which had claimed the city of Rostov-on-Don and set its sights on Moscow to rapidly pulling back his forces in return for passage to Belarus and all charges being dropped against him and his rebel army. 

A great deal still remains unknown regarding yesterday’s events, not least the full details of the deal made with Prigozhin and the motives of the hotdog seller-turned-warlord at the centre of this debacle. Prigozhin may have been using his revolt as an exercise to seek concessions from the Kremlin, such as the toppling of his longstanding rivals and targets: namely, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. 

However, having presumably not sparked a mutiny with the ultimate goal of enjoying a quiet retirement in Minsk, it is perhaps most likely that Prigozhin misjudged the level of support he would enjoy. Indeed, he may have simply lost his nerve on the approach to the capital, having launched the rebellion in response to attempts to bring Wagner and other irregular formations under the control of the Ministry of Defence. 

What can be assumed is that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be angry and — even more dangerously — embarrassed. He has learnt a bitter and very public lesson about the loyalty of mercenaries and, no matter what happens now, there was a moment when the President of Russia was forced to appear on television rallying against “a deadly threat to our statehood” and urging mutineers among his own citizenry to lay down their weapons. 

As a further sign of Putin’s weakness, the one who came to his aid and brokered the deal was Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. It was the Russian leader who rescued his counterpart back in 2020 after protests against Lukashenko’s dictatorial regime broke out in Belarus. 

Now Putin has faced the most serious challenge to his own rule, watched by the West, Ukraine and Russia’s divided but perhaps newly-galvanised opposition. The unspoken contract between Putin and Russia’s elites, whereby they traded compliance for enviable living standards and stability, is now shattered, and the President’s ambitions in Ukraine having brought Moscow sanctions, drone attacks and the prospect of armed insurrection. Putin is likely to lash out in the coming days to demonstrate his clout, whether through increased attacks in Ukraine or by reasserting his control over the organs of the Russian state lest any contenders be inspired by Prigozhin’s feats.  

As for the rebels themselves, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov confirmed last night that Wagner fighters who had not taken part in the uprising would sign contracts with the Ministry of Defence and those who had participated would not face charges over their actions. The Kremlin will now most likely try to eradicate Wagner as an organisation and bring its personnel under the remit of the Defence Ministry. 

This provokes questions about the implications for Russia’s presence abroad and especially in Africa, where it has relied on mercenaries as a means of achieving foreign policy objectives and projecting influence beyond its borders. It also raises questions about how amenably Wagner fighters will accept their new home and the military their new compatriots, given that tensions between the two sides were sliding into violence on the front line well before yesterday.

“Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous, and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe,” cautioned Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince. It is a lesson that Russia’s own Prince should have heeded much earlier. It will be difficult for Putin to forget the ease with which military personnel surrendered to Wagner and Prigozhin’s wrath became a revolt. In the coming days, the world will see the reaction of a man who fears nothing so much as revolution.


Bethany Elliott is a writer specialising in Russia and Eastern Europe.

BethanyAElliott

Join the discussion


Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber


To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.

Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.

Subscribe
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

7 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Sayantani Gupta Jafa
Sayantani Gupta Jafa
1 year ago

Curious a coup by Prigozhin was being written about in Western MSM months ago. Contrary to what is being written this surrender by Prigozhin shows that if this was an attempt at regime change better pick more credible rebels for the cause whoever planned it.

Last edited 1 year ago by Sayantani Gupta Jafa
Sayantani Gupta Jafa
Sayantani Gupta Jafa
1 year ago

Curious a coup by Prigozhin was being written about in Western MSM months ago. Contrary to what is being written this surrender by Prigozhin shows that if this was an attempt at regime change better pick more credible rebels for the cause whoever planned it.

Last edited 1 year ago by Sayantani Gupta Jafa
Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
1 year ago

Machiavelli was a schoolboy when the failed Pazzi coup took place in Florence, and would have heard the commotion as Francesco Salviati stormed through the streets of Florence inciting the Florentines to overthrow the Medici. But the people’s support wasn’t there after all, no matter how discontented they were with Medici rule. Machiavelli probably witnessed the conspirators’ bodies hanging from the palace.

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
1 year ago
Reply to  Paul Hendricks

Oddly enough, i’ve just watched the movie Hannibal (follow-up to Silence of the Lambs) and that’s a very topical point – which Lecter repeats with one of his victims!

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
1 year ago
Reply to  Paul Hendricks

Oddly enough, i’ve just watched the movie Hannibal (follow-up to Silence of the Lambs) and that’s a very topical point – which Lecter repeats with one of his victims!

Paul Hendricks
Paul Hendricks
1 year ago

Machiavelli was a schoolboy when the failed Pazzi coup took place in Florence, and would have heard the commotion as Francesco Salviati stormed through the streets of Florence inciting the Florentines to overthrow the Medici. But the people’s support wasn’t there after all, no matter how discontented they were with Medici rule. Machiavelli probably witnessed the conspirators’ bodies hanging from the palace.

Dermot O'Sullivan
Dermot O'Sullivan
1 year ago

What does it say about the current Russian regime when we compare the treatment meted out to Navalny to the ‘deal’ struck with Prigozhin?

Dermot O'Sullivan
Dermot O'Sullivan
1 year ago

What does it say about the current Russian regime when we compare the treatment meted out to Navalny to the ‘deal’ struck with Prigozhin?

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
1 year ago

Anyone, most of all Prigozhin, who thinks they’re now ‘safe’ from Putin’s backlash would be better employed having an extra pair of eyes fitted in the back of their heads.
One can only imagine the threats placed against the families and friends of not just Prigozhin but every single one of his Wagnerians, whose own shady backgrounds seemed to be the prime qualification for wishing to join his band; a tactic well known to any former member of the KGB. Small wonder the “march on Moscow” was halted in Rostov, which nevertheless made for a colossal humiliation for Putin leaving him even further weakened, whatever retaliation he chooses to take.
Incorporating these threatened and disillusioned militias into the regular Russian army will sow further division and provide a fertile platform for insurrection. The one that “lasted a day” may well prove to last far longer in the end.

Steve White
Steve White
1 year ago
Reply to  Steve Murray

I have a theory that Prigozhin is not mentally well. I think that his position is complex. That Wagner played an important role while the regular Russian military was grown, and trained up, and that he was a managed asset.
His instability has been on display for a while, and that I think there might even be some sympathy for him even from Putin. But I don’t think for a second that he was not monitored at every step of the way. He was given enough rope to where he made a very public move that caused him to be permanently removed as a headache. I doubt that he will ever be publicly seen much again. 

Last edited 1 year ago by Steve White
Steve White
Steve White
1 year ago
Reply to  Steve Murray

I have a theory that Prigozhin is not mentally well. I think that his position is complex. That Wagner played an important role while the regular Russian military was grown, and trained up, and that he was a managed asset.
His instability has been on display for a while, and that I think there might even be some sympathy for him even from Putin. But I don’t think for a second that he was not monitored at every step of the way. He was given enough rope to where he made a very public move that caused him to be permanently removed as a headache. I doubt that he will ever be publicly seen much again. 

Last edited 1 year ago by Steve White
Steve Murray
Steve Murray
1 year ago

Anyone, most of all Prigozhin, who thinks they’re now ‘safe’ from Putin’s backlash would be better employed having an extra pair of eyes fitted in the back of their heads.
One can only imagine the threats placed against the families and friends of not just Prigozhin but every single one of his Wagnerians, whose own shady backgrounds seemed to be the prime qualification for wishing to join his band; a tactic well known to any former member of the KGB. Small wonder the “march on Moscow” was halted in Rostov, which nevertheless made for a colossal humiliation for Putin leaving him even further weakened, whatever retaliation he chooses to take.
Incorporating these threatened and disillusioned militias into the regular Russian army will sow further division and provide a fertile platform for insurrection. The one that “lasted a day” may well prove to last far longer in the end.

Ben Jones
Ben Jones
1 year ago

Russia’s own Oskar Dirlewanger is going to spend the rest of his life wondering when he’ll be shot, poisoned or pushed out of a window. Good.