Yevgeny Prigozhin is a potential competitor for power with his own army. Of course Putin would use up the Wagner Group to bleed the Ukrainians and reduce this competitor’s power.
The dynamics of this war are truly unprecedented. YouTube creator Perun (highly recommended, BTW) posted a 72 minute analysis of the infighting and corruption between the Wagner Group and the Russian military with Putin in the middle, playing both sides as a means of retaining his grip on power.
The specific segment beginning around 58:00 into the video analyzes the battle for ammunition and bodies taking place between Wagner and the military. Bizarrely, the two factions are duking it out in online forums, to more bizarre and likely deadly effect – for Wagner / Russian cannon fodder. Leaders within Wagner publicly attempted to shift blame for recent losses by posting public complaints that they were only being given x,000 shells per day and only y00 men. In fact, a spreadsheet was posted listing 21 different tactical operations showing the quantity of shells Wagner had requested and actual amounts they claimed they received from the Russian military.
Okay, DUMB if true.
Officials within the Russian military rebutted the Wagner complaints… By publicly posting “true” statistics on the number of rounds allocated to Wagner forces and the number of Russian soldiers allocated towards operations led by Wagner.
Perun dryly joked that he may consider crafting a detailed “analysis” of all of Russia’s ammunition depots reflecting a bunch of bogus locations and posting it online so the Russian Ministry of Defense will promptly refute his analysis online with a detailed map of ACTUAL depot locations. “I would be proven wrong and Ukranian HIMARS teams would have a fantastic opportunity.”
WTH
Being against Prighozhin is being against Putin potentially. Meaning the Russian military elite can be very dangerous.
The video speaker is kidding himself about the extreme Russian right that is Putin to begin with. The video commentator is just discovering this? Crazy.