Putin puts Wagner boss on his number: “He has gone too far and now his wings are being clipped” | War Ukraine and Russia

The meeting between Putin and Prigozhin would have taken place around January 14 in St. Petersburg, Markov told Reuters news agency. And Prigozhin showed himself “extremely combative”.

The Kremlin does not mention the interview on its website and says it does not comment on private meetings, but at least one other person present confirmed that the meeting did take place.

Prigozhin’s star rose quickly last year when he went to Ukraine with his mercenary army to fight for the Russian cause. Last month, he proudly announced the capture of the town of Soledar, the first significant victory for the Russians in months. It cost him at least 25,000 men. Most of them criminals, whom he recruited in Russian prisons and penal colonies.

LOOK. For example, Russians recruit prisoners for war in Ukraine

Prigozhin did not hold back on social media either. He promoted his ruthless private militia there and strongly criticized the Russian Ministry of Defense and the army command, which, according to him, are doing nothing in Ukraine. Speculation soon arose about possible political ambitions.

However, Putin seems to have skillfully nipped it in the bud during a meeting between the two. He also made it clear that the criticism of Russian leaders should be over. According to Sergei Markov, Prigozhin promised that he would not start his own political movement and that he would not join a political party without instructions from the Russian authorities.

LOOK. Yevgeny Prigozhin praises his Wagner group

Markov admits that he does not know exactly who said what during the interview, but that the message was that Prigozhin would receive military support on the condition that he stay away from politics for the time being. “The Kremlin is a little afraid of him and thinks he’s a difficult person,” he added.

Remarkable: Prigozhin said in an interview last week that he has “no political ambition whatsoever” and it is also striking that he indeed criticizes the Russian army leadership less.

An influential social media outlet associated with Wagner also published a document over the weekend that appears to be from the Kremlin calling on state media journalists to stop mentioning Prigozhin and the Wagner group. They may only refer to them in general terms. However, it is not possible to verify the authenticity of the document.

According to Dmitri Alperovitch – the chairman of the American think tank ‘Silverado Policy Accelerator’ – Prigozhin’s room for maneuver is shrinking. “His star is waning. He has gone too far in his criticism of the military and other Russian elites. Now his wings are clipped.”