President of Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer said that Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is a ‘dead man walking’.
His armed revolt over the weekend launched by his Wagner Group was seen as a huge threat and though he is currently in exile in Belarus, Bremmer suspects he won’t be around for very long.
Bremmer told Squawk Box Asia, “Prigozhin is kind of dead man walking at this point. I would be very surprised that he’s still with us in a few months time.”
Prigozhin and the revolt
The Wagner revolt was completely unexpected and something Putin did not see coming. The mutinous army were just 200 km from the capital of Moscow when they were told to abort the mission.
“Putin has imprisoned and assassinated people for far less than what Prigozhin has done to this. It’s inconceivable to me that Putin will allow him to live any longer than is absolutely necessary.”
The deal now is that Belarus will protect Prigozhin in exchange for him calling off the insurrection. The Kremlin in the meantime has agreed to drop the criminal case against Prigozhin.
“Obviously this does show a level of unprecedented weakness for President Putin. But at the same time, while Putin was unprecedently tested, there was not a single high-level defection from the Russian military, from the Russian government or among the Russian oligarchs – so anyone that believes that Putin is suddenly on the brink of leaving power, also needs to recognize that’s not where we are,” he added.
The FEUD
The feud actually escalated when Prigozhin refused to sign off on the Kremlin’s requirement that all private mercenary forces must sign contracts with the Defense Mnistry by July 1st.
Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre senior fellow Tatiana Stanovaya wrote on Twitter that, “Prigozhin’s objective was to draw Putin’s attention and to impose a discussion about conditions to preserve his activities – a defined role, security and funding.”
“These weren’t demands for a governmental overthrow; they were a desperate bid to save the enterprise, hoping that Prigozhin’s merits in taking Bakhmut… would be taken into account and the concerns would catch Putin’s serious attention,” she added.
The Wagner fighter have helped Putin in the war against Ukraine capturing the Easter city of Bakhmut.
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