Putin Says Wagner ‘Simply Doesn’t Exist’ As Kremlin Moves To Dismantle Paramilitary Group

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Wagner paramilitary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin “simply doesn’t exist,” as he moves to dismantle an organization that was critical to Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine before it turned on the Russian establishment in a short-lived mutiny last month.

Putin’s comments, in an interview published late Thursday in Russian newspaper Kommersant, came days after Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had taken control of Wagner tanks, artillery and guns after its involvement in the biggest challenge to Putin in his 23 years in power.

At the same time, the Kremlin has sought to keep Wagner troops in the fight in Ukraine. Putin told Kommersant that he had called a meeting with Prigozhin and Wagner unit commanders days after the mutiny to discuss “employment options” for fighters. 

“Ordinary Wagner fighters fought with dignity,” Putin in the interview. “The fact that they were involved in these events is regrettable.”

During the insurrection, Wagner occupied the headquarters of the Southern Military District in the southern Russian city of Rostov and a column including armored vehicles and air-defense systems set out for Moscow but stopped before reaching the Russian capital. Prigozhin agreed to go into exile in Belarus.

The demolition of Wagner ends one of Moscow’s most daring experiments with a shadow force that provided Moscow with footholds in Africa and the Middle East, as Wagner troops fought faraway wars on the side of Putin’s allies.

Private military companies are illegal in Russia, and Wagner operated for years in a gray area, engaging in shadowy operations while providing the Kremlin plausible deniability.

The Kremlin’s security forces have led a crackdown on Wagner’s sympathizers within the ranks of the armed forces, detaining at least 13 high-ranking officers for questioning and suspending or firing at least 15 officers.

In his interview to Kommersant, owned by Alisher Usmanov, a businessman loyal to the government, Putin said he offered Wagner fighters an opportunity to remain in Ukraine under the command of a Wagner officer who goes by the call sign Gray.

Putin said that during his meeting with Prigozhin and Wagner unit commanders and company executives, many were receptive to his offer. But Putin said Prigozhin interrupted the discussion, saying: “No the boys don’t agree with that proposal.”

Prigozhin hasn’t been seen in public since the mutiny and neither he nor Wagner has confirmed that the meeting with Putin took place or what was discussed. The president of Belarus said that after a brief stay there, Prigozhin had returned to Russia.  

Following Wagner’s abortive march on Moscow, the Kremlin said the group’s troops had to choose between signing contracts with the Russia’s Defense Ministry, redeploying to Belarus or returning to civilian life.

Wagner’s battle-hardened fighters, reinforced by recruits from Russia’s prisons, were responsible for Russia’s only recent battlefield victory, when they took the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut earlier this year.

After the mutiny, some fighters leaving Rostov said they were moving to the group’s base in Molkino in southern Russia, near the border with Ukraine. Others, locals reported, said they were heading to other camps in Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine.

Write to Thomas Grove at [email protected]