'Didn't have a clue...': Wagner Group junior commander on Prigozhin's mutiny plan

A junior commander of the mercenary Wagner Group who took part in the brief mutiny against President Vladimir Putin has revealed he and his fellow fighters had no clue about what was going on, according to a BBC report.

The mercenary identified as Gleb (not his real name), who previously fought in Bakhmut on the eastern front, said he was resting with his unitin the barracks in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region.

However, on the day of the mutiny (June 23), he was ordered to join a column of Wagner fighters leaving Ukraineby an unnamedcommander, who was acting on the directions of Wagner chiefYevgeny Prigozhin andthe Wagner Command Council.

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"It's a full deployment.We're forming a column, let's move out," Gleb was told.

The Wagner mercenary said no one was told where the column was headed but it was surprising that they were being pulled away from the frontline. He added that along the route, the Wagner fighters received 'absolutely' no resistance.

"I didn't see any border guards. But the traffic police saluted us along the way."

Several news reports at the time claimed that border guards had laid down their weapons when the Wagner fighters arrived, granting them safe passage.

Upon reaching Rostov-on-Don, Gleb said they were tasked with surrounding alllaw enforcement agency buildings in the city and occupyingthe military airport. His unit was ordered to seize control ofthe regional offices of the Federal Security Service (FSB).

When quizzed if he or his fellow unit members knew what was going on,Gleb replied bluntly that they didn't have a clue.

"We learned what was happening from Telegram, just like you did."

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Why the coup?

The mercenary group had remained on the fringes since its inception in 2014. However, after the war with Ukrainedragged on, Putin turned towards Prigozhin for support. Initially, Wagner Group made concise inroads, hurting the Ukrainian side heavily.

But soon, Prigozhin started to lambast the Russian military and higher authorities for failing to provide his forces with enough resources.

WhilePrigozhin refrained from directly criticising Putin for the major part, he went for the jugular last month when his troops nearly marched upon Moscow within hours. Before the coup could grow,Prigozhin realised his mistake and chickened out.

Putin on Wagner Group's future

Earlier this month, Putin said that Wagner PMC was formally nonexistent nowfollowing the coup attempt.

When questioned about the organisation's future, from the point of view of the Russian legislation, Putin said, "Wagner PMC does not exist".

The president explained that Moscow hadno law on private military companies and, therefore, "there is no such legal entity".

"The [Wagner] Group exists, but it is judicially non-existent," Kommersant’s special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov quoted Putin as saying.

"The formal legalisation is a separate issue that should be addressed by the State Duma [the lower chamber of the Russian parliament] and the government. It’s a complicated issue."

(With inputs from agencies)

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