Explained: Could Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin be a real threat to Vladimir Putin?

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia’s Vladimir Putin will one day be murdered by his own inner circle. Zelensky made the claim in a Ukrainian documentary called Year, according to several media reports. As per Newsweek, Zelensky said “there will definitely be a moment when the fragility of Putin’s regime will be felt inside Russia”. “And then the predators will devour a predator. They will find a reason to kill a killer. They will recall the words of Komarov, of Zelenskyy…They will remember. They will find a reason to kill the killer. Will it work? Yes. When? I don’t know,” Zelensky added. Zelensky’s comments cone just days after the one-year anniversary of the Ukraine war and reports of a rift between top Russian military officials and the chief of the Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin. The comments also come months after reports of Putin’s inner circle growing frustrated with him. Let’s take a closer look at whether the Russian president faces a threat from the man known as ‘Putin’s chef’: Could Prigozhin be a problem? The buzz that Prigozhin could possibly replace Putin has already begun. Putin has increasingly relied on the Wagner Group, founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, as the war in Ukraine has continued and his forces started to feel their losses. Never one to keep his thoughts to himself, Prigozhin is currently embroiled in a feud with Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the Russian general staff Valery Gerasimov. “Putin started doubting victory because he realised the generals can’t be trusted. So he started seeking out other opinions,” an invididual close to  person close to Prigozhin told Financial Times. “If Shoigu goes, we win. Shoigu is our biggest enemy, not the Ukrainians.” As per DW, Prigozhin on 20 February claimed Russia’s top military brass had committed “treason” by depriving his troops of ammunition.

As per Slate, Prigozhin further added that they were attempting to “destroy” the Wagner Group.

On Friday, Prigozhin evoked the actions of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin during World War Two to excoriate a regional governor who had told him to stick to his food business. “During the 1941-45 war, which is now being repeated, Stalin simply shot people like you. I think we’re going to return to those times soon,” he told Sverdlovsk governor Yevgeny Kuivashev, according to his press service. “I’m sure that the time is not far off when people will reach boiling point and raise you and people like you up on pitchforks,” he added, alluding to peasant rebellions. Prigozhin, who made his money through food services and contracts to cater the Kremlin, claimed he founded Wagner to support the 2014 mission in Donbas. Prigozhin, 61, who did nine years’ jail for theft and street muggings in the 1980s, has emerged from the shadows to assume a high profile since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His fighters, whom he touts as among the best, are spearheading an offensive in eastern Ukraine. In January, Prigozhin, irate over the Kremlin claiming credit for the Russian victory in Soledar, wrote on Telegram, “They are constantly trying to steal victory from the Wagner PMC [private military company] and talk about the presence of the unknown, only to belittle their merits.” Is there a method to Prigozhin’s madness? Some think so. Jason Jay Smart, a Ukranian political analyst told Slate that Prigozhin “may recognize the changing winds in Russia as being his own window of opportunity to move up the ladder to the top spot.” “History, though, shows that sometimes leaders fall not because they have done something wrong in the eyes of their citizens, but simply because a young lion wishes to usurp the old lion king,” Smart wrote. Prigozhin overplayed his hand? However, others think Prigozhin may have overplayed his hand – as evident by the fact that the Kremlin stripped the Wagner Group of its ability to recruit convicts. “Prigozhin basically forgot who was the top assassin in Russia,” Rebekah Koffler, president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting and a former DIA intelligence officer, told Fox News Digital. Putin does not want to be upstaged by one of his minions, so to speak.” [caption id=“attachment_12184922” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Russian president Vladimir Putin. AFP[/caption] “By criticizing the Russian military, he implicitly criticizes Putin as well, because Putin did not prepare this whole plan by himself,” Koffler added. “So [Prigozhin] is exposing the incompetence, and Putin can’t possibly like that.”

“There’s a risk he could end up like Icarus,” a person close to Prigozhin conceded to Financial Times.

Some analysts believe Prigozhin’s thuggish behaviour is useful to the Kremlin as it keeps the elite fearful of what might happen if President Vladimir Putin were to step down. Others, though, warn that Prigozhin and other figures in Russia with their own private armies, like Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, could one day go rogue. One source close to the Russian authorities told Reuters in January that though the Kremlin viewed Prigozhin as a useful operator it maintained unspecified safeguards over leaders of armed groups. “There is a ceiling (of growth) and mechanisms in place,” said the source, who declined to provide more details. “It seems to me that those who are most interested in Prigozhin’s elimination are located near the Kremlin,” The Daily Beast quoted one pro-Russia commentator as saying. “They’ll just leak information about [his] movements and locations to the Ukrainians.” Indeed, the Kremlin may even be hinting at such an outcome – albeit obliquely. Kremlin warns Prigozhin could face assassination The Daily Beast quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying authorities in Kyiv could be targeting Prigozhin and that Zelensky and CIA director William Burns even discussed such a possibility. “One of the requests Zelensky made [during a meeting with the CIA director] was the murder of the Wagner boss, Mr Prigozhin,” Rogov said. “But as for assassination attempts, Ukraine is involved in both assassination attempts and an absolutely monstrous murder. Let’s remember the assassination attempts that took place. Let’s remember the murder of [Daria] Dugina and so forth. The involvement of the Kyiv regime in such assassination attempts is obvious, so there is such a danger to our citizens,” Peskov added. “It seems to me that those who are most interested in Prigozhin’s elimination are located near the Kremlin,” The Daily Beast quoted one pro-Russia commentator as saying. “They’ll just leak information about [his] movements and locations to the Ukrainians.” With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.