Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, a former FSB officer who has previously served as the defense minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, said in an interview with Russian activist Savva Fedoseen that although the recent Wagner PMC mutiny appears to have ended quietly and with no outcome, it was actually a “colossal blow” to the prestige of the Russian authorities.
He said that the Russian authorities are “toothless” and that in future crises, nobody will fear them. He elaborated that the incident has demonstrated that it is easy to start a mutiny and to march on Moscow.
In addition, Strelkov said that Wagner PMC head Yevgeny Priogozhin is not ready for the role of being an “all-Russian dictator,” that he is a parasite on Russian patriotism, that he is a recidivist criminal and bloody executioner, and that he has won the sympathies of poorly-educated and naïve patriots who expect a knight in shining armor to emerge from within the system and become Russia’s savior.