Former Russian official claims Putin, Wagner chief are just ‘gangsters fighting’

A former Russian official claimed on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the chief of the private mercenary group Wagner are just “gangsters fighting for their piece of pie,” after the Wagner chief rebelled and moved his troops on Moscow.

“These guys are all of the same kind of league, all of the same gang rather,” former Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev told CNN. “They are gangsters fighting for their piece of pie, and [the] pie is becoming thinner because of the war, because of the sanctions.”

Kozyrev, who served as foreign minister under former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, called Putin the “godfather of the whole arrangement” and suggested that the Russian leader “created” Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.

“Absolutely,” Kozyrev said, when asked whether he includes Putin among the “gangsters.” “He is probably godfather of the whole arrangement. You know, Prigozhin was his creature. He created Prigozhin.” 

“He owns the Russian dictator who depends totally on his support because people, they are against the dictator,” the former official added.

Prigozhin and his troops began advancing toward Moscow on Friday, as he called for an armed rebellion to remove Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu from power. 

He ultimately turned his troops around on Saturday, after Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko reportedly helped broker a deal to defuse the rebellion. As part of the deal, the Wagner chief will head to Belarus, and he and his troops will not face prosecution, the Kremlin said.