Claiming the Russian military had shelled his troops in Ukraine, Prigozhin began a “March of Justice” on June 23 to take control of the Russian Southern Military District Headquarters in Rostov and, presumably, the Kremlin in Moscow. In other words, he really had little to lose because he was already at risk of losing everything. This signaled that Prigozhin was losing influence in Kremlin circles and could be pushed out even further. On June 10, Russia’s deputy minister of defense announced that Wagner Group members would be required to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense - thus threatening to eliminate the main source of Prigozhin’s power. Glantz: The immediate cause of Prigozhin’s actions was the Kremlin’s decision to place Wagner under the control of the Ministry of Defense (MOD), essentially marking the defeat of Prigozhin in his months-long, very public battle with the MOD leadership (in particular, Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and General Staff Chief Valerii Gerasimov). What led to Prigozhin’s decision to capture a military base in southwest Russia and march on Moscow? USIP’s Heather Ashby and Mary Glantz explain what led to Prigozhin’s dramatic maneuvers, what it means for Putin’s rule and his war on Ukraine, and where the Wagner Group goes from here.
With Prigozhin feeling cornered and weakened, last weekend he launched a desperate offensive inside Russia, with his Wagner forces seizing a southwestern military base and marching toward Moscow.
Wagner troops were able to occupy Rostov on June 24, 2023.(The New York Times) Russian armored vehicles on a highway, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, Feb. Eventually, Putin sided with Priogzhin’s opponents ordering Wagner to be officially subsumed within Ministry of Defense. But as cracks emerged across Russian society and within the elite over the war, Prigozhin has been one of the most outspoken critics, alienating his adversaries in Russia’s defense ministry. After Putin’s February 2022 invasion, the private miliary company - led by Putin’s former chef, Yevgeny Prigozhin - became a critical cog of the Russian military’s war effort. Before Vladimir Putin launched his illegal war on Ukraine, the Russian-funded paramilitary Wagner Group was an infamous, shadowy tool of Moscow’s foreign policy, advancing its objectives in the Middle East and Africa.
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