2023-08-26 15:37:02
Will the allegedly killed Wagner boss be buried as a “hero” or buried as a “traitor”? The funeral raises questions. Vladimir Putin is now reorganizing the mercenary group.
In St. Petersburg, in front of the building where the Wagner Group once rented a building, people are constantly gathering. Red carnations are laid down, candles, a flag with the logo of the paramilitary group is waving in the wind. The people – often former and active members – bid farewell to Yevgeny Prigozhin and the other Wagner officials who were killed a few days ago in the alleged assassination attempt on their plane. One mourner came in his balaclava, another brought a sledgehammer. Prigozhin, he told local reporters, loved sledgehammers.
For the people in front of the Wagner headquarters, the oligarch, brutal warlord and leader of a short-lived mutiny once morest Vladimir Putin is a hero. The Russian president will show what he means to Putin with Prigozhin’s funeral. Once he had awarded Prigozchin and Wagner co-founder Dmitri Utkin – he was also in the crashed plane – the highest honorary title “Hero of Russia”. Other expressions of honor were not stingy either, and so the question arises in Moscow as to whether they will also allow the now “traitor” Prigozhin to be buried like a “hero” in public. A funeral attended by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov? Prigozhin had recently bitterly demanded the dismissal of the two military personnel.
“Too clumsy and unprofessional”
The dead are still in a morgue near the crash site near Tver, north of Moscow. They are currently being “genetically examined” to determine their identity, as the investigators announced via Telegram. That may well take longer, but that buys the Kremlin time. Observers are speculating regarding many scenarios: from an isolated funeral in Russia to a funeral in Africa – Wagner worked in different countries.
Putin gave a kind of early funeral speech on Thursday. He called the Wagner founder important and flawed at the same time. So while Putin was laboriously searching for formulations, the Belarusian ruler, who was loyal to Putin, got straight to the point: “I don’t think Putin did it,” said Alexander Lukashenko on Friday in Minsk. “The work is too clumsy and unprofessional.” He himself warned Prigozhin and Utkin several times without success. And as for the Wagner mercenaries, whom he gave shelter to following the mutiny: “Wagner lives and Wagner will continue to live in Belarus.”
Wherever Wagner stays, the restructuring of the highly armed group in Putin’s fashion has already begun. From now on, their mercenaries must swear allegiance to the Russian state, and Putin had the decree published on Friday. Andrei Troschew might come into question as Prigozhin’s successor. Just a few days following the mutiny, Putin is said to have informally introduced the 61-year-old, highly decorated war veteran sanctioned by the EU as the future of the mercenary force. Troshev as an army man would be the antithesis to the erratic ex-restaurateur Prigozhin. The possible calculus behind it: Wagner should continue his operations in Ukraine, but also his lucrative business in Africa, but be firmly anchored in Putin’s system.
Andrei Aweryanov: Traveled via Vienna
Troshev is also the name of Andrei Averyanov, formerly head of unit 29155 of the GRU military intelligence service. Among other things, the unit carries out assassination attempts and acts of sabotage abroad – keyword: Novichok – and in this context Averyanov’s name also became known. When attacks on Czech ammunition depots in 2014, the major general is said to have been there in person. Namely, Aweryanov is said to have landed in Vienna-Schwechat shortly before the attacks and then traveled to the scene of the crime in Vrbětice. The name of his fake identity, according to the investigative platform Bellingcat: Andrei Oweryanov. It was only in July that Putin had Averyanov appear at his Africa summit in St. Petersburg and introduced him to his Malian guests as a security expert. Wagner is also active in Mali. And just before his plane crashed, Prigozhin is said to have been in Mali.
The plane, a private jet with a total of ten people on board, crashed on Wednesday evening. No one survived – in addition to the Nazi admirer Utkin, other high-ranking Wagner representatives were on board. On Friday, the investigators secured the flight recorder, the cause of the crash remains unclear for the time being. US intelligence circles apparently assume an explosion during the flight; President Joe Biden himself said only that his authorities were still determining the exact cause of the crash. Other observers see Averyanov directly involved in the explosion. (duo)
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