Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has pushed back against claims that he could plot a military coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin using his mercenaries, saying that he lacks sufficient personnel to do so.
In an audio message on the Telegram channel for his company Concord, Prigozhin responded to former Russian commander Igor Girkin's accusations that he and his paramilitary outfit are preparing for a coup in Russia, saying they are untrue and that he has a "very respectful attitude" towards Putin.
Earlier, Girkin, a military blogger and self-described Russian nationalist, said recent verbal attacks by Prigozhin aimed at Russia's military leadership signal a rift in elites that the Wagner Group chief will take advantage of with fighters that are being withdrawn from the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.
Prigozhin responded on Monday by denying that he is plotting a coup.
"In order to carry out a coup d'état or a military coup, it is not at all necessary to have a large number of armed people," he began.
"But, as a rule, coups are carried out by the army, as a rule, by some part of a breakaway army. PMC Wagner is not an army at all…we have a very respectful attitude towards the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin," Prigozhin said.
The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington D.C., noted in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine on Monday that Prigozhin vaguely implied that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu could stage a coup as he has access to Russian special forces.
Prigozhin also said that while some individuals in Russia are expecting a revolution, his Wagner Group is only advocating for select corrections to the Russian system.
The think tank observed that Prigozhin has dramatically increased the number of direct references he is making to Putin since May 9—after he indirectly criticized Putin during the Victory Day holiday.
On May 9, Victory Day—Moscow's annual celebration of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II—Prigozhin published heated videos complaining about a lack of ammunition for his mercenaries shortly before and immediately after Putin's speech in Moscow's Red Square. Prigozhin suggested that his fighters still lack ammunition and that the Wagner Group was not allowed to retreat, facing threats of being accused of state treason for desertion.
Russian generals, Prigozhin said in his scathing attack, are traitors.
"What if it turns out that the grandfather is a real a******?" he added.
Vlad Mykhnenko, an expert in the post-communist transformation of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union at Oxford University, told Newsweek at the time that "obviously, grandfather is a reference to Putin."
Prigozhin soon after said that he was not referring to the president in his remarks.
The ISW assessed earlier in May that Prigozhin has likely been warned over his possible political aspirations.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
