Wagner Group founder and leader Yevgeny Prigozhin invited former Donbas separatist commander Igor Girkin to join the paramilitary organization on Thursday, but his offer looks more like a “poisoned chalice” than an olive branch.

“As the main leader of the “Wagner” PMC, I invite Mr. Girkin to the front line to check his position and usefulness, since, according to him, he has combat experience. I suggest that he go to the territory of the LPR to be appointed to a higher position, according to his competence, in one of the assault units. Of course, no one will be able to give him a high position, for this it is necessary to show his capabilities. It’s time to move from words to action,” mercenary head Wagner said in a statement published a day ago on Telegram.

While the irony in Girkin’s message is obvious, the invitation surprised many observers of the war in Ukraine, including Russian military bloggers, as Girkin has repeatedly criticized Wagner’s group’s effectiveness on the battlefield and their activities, including the paramilitary-led offensive on the Bakhmut Axis.

Prigozhin himself said on Thursday that he decided to take Girkin into the military group, despite the fact that the group has an “extremely negative attitude” towards him and that his criticism of the Wagner mercenaries was “extremely harmful to the boys.”

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s move was even more surprising as it came after a new spat between the two recently, as the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) notes in its latest assessment of the situation surrounding the war launched by Vladimir. Not much last year.

A new exchange of lines between Igor Girkin and Yevhen Prigozhin

On Wednesday, Girkin accused the Wagner mercenary leader of misrepresenting criticism of his political aspirations as a critic of Wagner’s forces fighting in Ukraine.

The former commander of pro-Russian separatists in Donbass also stated that the interview published the other day by the “RiaFan” channel affiliated with the “Wagner Group”, in which he was accused of abandoning positions in Donbass in 2014, was an attempt to anonymously discredit him.

Girkin also accused Prigozhin of the fact that the PKK continues to support military actions in Syria and Africa instead of using all its forces to win in Ukraine.

For years, the Kremlin has denied any connection with the Wagner PMC mercenaries (PHOTO: Kommersant Photo Agency / ddp USA / Profimedia)

Prigozhin responded that he had no political ambitions and was exaggerating his powers, claiming that he could not withdraw Wagner’s troops from Africa because he had made promises to “several presidents that he would protect them” and that the paramilitary group had “de facto won”. the war in Syria.

“Putin’s cook” also stated that his group of mercenaries was driven out of Donbas by pro-Russian separatists in 2015.

Nationalist factions compete for influence in Russia

ISW notes that Prigozhin and Girkin, both critics of the way Moscow’s military command is waging the war, are likely competing for influence and support among pro-war Russian politicians who are disillusioned with the way things are going.

American military analysts noted as recently as last October that Russian nationalists are divided into three distinct groups pursuing different goals in criticizing Moscow’s Defense Ministry: Russian veterans or “proxies” who fought in Russia’s wars, nationalists with their own paramilitary forces, such as Prigozhin , and Russian veterans. military bloggers and military correspondents themselves are extremely popular in Telegram channels.

Although Girkin is part of the military blog community, he represents the veteran faction in this dispute with the Russian Ministry of Defense and other groups, while Prigozhin is a self-proclaimed nationalist with access to a parallel military structure.

According to ISW, the two are likely competing for the favor of the same nationalist pro-war networks that have ties to the Kremlin and are represented by flamboyant nationalist politicians. Prigozhin, for example, courted several members of the nationalist party “Just Russia – For the Truth” and the head of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, a well-known politician from the wing of the Russian “hawks”.

Girkin, a former FSB officer, at the height of his power in 2014 (PHOTO: Bulent Kilic / AFP / Profimedia)

The head of Wagner’s mercenaries is trying to avoid the fate of the former commander of the Donbas separatists

Relations between Girkin and many of these politicians have instead cooled, and he may be disappointed that he cannot have the same political influence as he did in 2014 after the illegal annexation of Crimea, when he was officially the so-called defense minister. In the Donetsk People’s Republic, he actually became the commander of all separatist forces in Donbas.

Prigozhin is likely trying to maximize his influence to avoid Girkin’s fate, especially given that mercenary leader Wagner appears to have lost the Kremlin’s confidence after his forces failed to capture the key town of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast despite attacking on it for six months.

Girkin was completely abandoned by the Kremlin after his forces withdrew from the Donetsk city of Slovyansk in the summer of 2014 after a 3-month occupation, as well as his involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July of that year.

Then Igor Girkin was removed from the position of Minister of Defense of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” and recalled to Russia, where he lived for the past 9 years. Last November, he was sentenced to life in prison in the Netherlands for his involvement in the downing of a passenger plane over eastern Ukraine.

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