Pak Sahafat – In a report on the situation in Russia and the internal military rebellion of the Wagner group in this country, NBC News announced that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group, does not intend to stage a coup against the Kremlin, but seeks to remove military officials, including the Minister of Defense.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency, this news channel quoted a senior American military official whose name was not mentioned and wrote: Prigozhin does not appear to be seeking a coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin, but rather is trying to oust Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Valery Gerasimov.
According to this report, it is difficult to estimate the number of forces of the Wagner Group in Russia, but the number most often announced by the group itself is 25,000 soldiers. Some other sources estimate that this group has between 15,000 and 50,000 people.
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On the other hand, an American military think tank on Friday, assessing what it called a “military insurgency” in Russia, said that Wagner’s members have little chance of success against forces loyal to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The Institute for the Study of War in Washington DC, which closely monitors the developments of the war in Ukraine, does not foresee any success for Wagner’s group and says that it is unlikely that this group’s attempt to change the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense will be successful.
The institute said that Prigozhin’s 25,000 troops played an important role in Ukraine and that he may have believed that Putin would support him, which seems unlikely.
The think tank believes that at the same time, Prigozhin’s group does not have “independent access” to the orders and equipment necessary to win, and there does not seem to be any support for him from within the military, including from some key leaders.