Pentagon watching closely Wagner’s Mideast posture as questions surround its future
In an excerpt from this week's Security Briefing, Pentagon correspondent Jared Szuba looks at what's next for Wagner's forces in the Middle East and North Africa following the private military company's short-lived mutiny in Russia.
WASHINGTON — After years of denying any links to Wagner, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin claimed on Tuesday that the Kremlin has been bankrolling the shady paramilitary group to the tune of nearly $1 billion over the past year.
It was a stunning admission for Putin, borne of a need to assert a semblance of control now that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s autonomy — once an asset for Russian irregular warfare — has turned into a catastrophic mistake.
To get Security Briefing in your inbox every week, sign up here.
Prigozhin has claimed the Kremlin had planned to take control of his forces by July 1, thus apparently prompting his aborted insurrection drive to Moscow.
