The confrontation between a criminal, founder of the Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin and a terrorist and former DPR militant Igor Girkin shows an exposing competition for political influence in Russia, but this phenomenon may benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This assumption was voiced by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
They believe that the attacks of Prigozhin, known in the Russian Federation, on Girkin, already forgotten by Russians, may be useful to Putin.
In this way, Wagner's PMC boss is trying to maximize his influence. Prigozhin does not want the fate of Girkin, whom the Kremlin removed from office after his militants retreated from Sloviansk, and then the name of the war criminal was linked to the downing of a Malaysian Boeing in July 2014.
Prigozhin is trying to create a support base in the Kremlin and in Russian society in order to strengthen his presence in Russian internal affairs, the Institute stressed.
Criticizing the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Kremlin, both criminals and terrorists are trying to increase their importance in Russian society and gain more patronage among leading politicians disappointed in the course of the war against Ukraine.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, having heard criticism of him from Girkin, Prigozhin invited him to the occupied part of the Luhansk Region to prove himself as a military leader. Girkin agreed, but proposed moving the discussion of the issue from the public plane to a private conversation with a representative of the Wagner militants. It is not yet known whether the man responsible for shooting down the Boeing МН-117 will join former prisoners and killers from the Wagner PMC.
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