Wagner chief’s furious rants risk making an enemy of Putin in feud with Russia’s defence ministry

Yevgeny Prigozhin's mercenaries have played a key role in the fight for control of the city of Bakhmut – a symbolic battle for both Ukraine and Russia. But, writes Kim Sengupta, Putin’s indulgence of his tirades may be over as the president backs his defence minister’s call for Wagner fighters to sign contracts with the army

Vladimir Putin, left, has so far tolerated Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rants against the defence ministry (Getty/Reuters)

It has been claimed by those familiar with the game of thrones in the Kremlin that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s vitriolic aggression towards the Russian military high command could not have taken place without the sanction of Vladimir Putin.

Even if Putin had just tolerated, rather than encouraged, the Wagner mercenary boss in the feud, then that indulgence seems to be over for the time being. Russia’s president has backed defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s directive that Prigozhin’s mercenaries must sign contracts with the army.

“This has to be done and it has to be done as quickly as possible, in line with common sense, with established practice and the law” said Putin. His office reiterated that there cannot be any exception to the rule.

This was a distinct change of stance from the president who, in the past, appeared to back some of Prigozhin’s criticism and praise his effectiveness. He said at one point: “At the start of the special military operation, we quickly realised that the ‘carpet generals’ […] are not effective, to put it mildly. People started to come out of the shadows who we hadn’t heard or seen before, and they turned out to be very effective and made themselves useful.”

Now he is backing Shoigu, who has been a particular target of Prigozhin. He accused the defence minister of being one of the “sons of b****es” who had deliberately deprived his fighters of ammunition in the battle for Bakhmut. He pilloried Shoigu for allegedly protecting his family from military service, saying: “How can Shoigu’s son-in-law [a fitness trainer] go to the United Arab Emirates and shake his bum around?”

“Wagner will not sign any contract with Shoigu,” Prigozhin insisted. Asked about the Russian president’s intervention, the Wagner boss maintained his public defiance. “When we started participating in this war, no one said that we would be obliged to conclude agreements with the ministry of defence. None of the Wagner fighters is ready to go down the path of shame again,” he added.

Prigozhin has made threats in the past, such as of unilaterally abandoning Bakhmut, and then not carried them out. Wagner has until the end of the month to sign the contract and he may well do so having wrung out some form of concession which he can present as a victory.

The Wagner boss may gamble that the Kremlin need his fighters amid the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive and could back down. But that leaves the possibility of retribution in the future.

Prigozhin got his nickname of “Putin’s Chef” due to the highly lucrative government contracts he got, starting with a catering business. These may disappear. Wagner has also built up a massive commercial empire in Africa where it has deployed fighters. Sustaining this will be extremely difficult if not impossible without the Kremlin’s backing.