A year ago, Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin challenged the Kremlin with a mutiny

On a quiet summer weekend a year ago, Russia was shaken by the shocking news of an armed uprising. The boastful head of a Kremlin-sponsored mercenary army seized a military barracks in the south and began marching toward Moscow to overthrow Defense Ministry leaders, accusing them of depriving his forces in Ukraine of ammunition.

Yevgeny Prigozhin and his hired soldiers called off their “justice march” just hours later, but the rebellion dealt a blow to President Vladimir Putin, the most serious challenge to his rule in nearly a quarter century in power.

Prigozhin’s motives are still the subject of heated debate and the suspicious accident The mystery of the private plane that killed him and his top lieutenants exactly two months after the rebellion remains shrouded in mystery.

A look at the riot and its impact:

Prigozhin, an ex-convict, owned an elegant restaurant in St. Petersburg where Putin received foreign leaders. That earned Prigozhin the nickname “Putin’s chef.” Those ties earned him lucrative government contracts, including catering for Kremlin events and providing meals and services to the military.

He founded the Wagner Group, a private military contractor, in 2014, and used it to advance Russia’s political interests and influence by deploying mercenaries to Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and elsewhere. Wagner’s fighters provided security to African leaders or warlords, often in exchange for a share of gold mines or other natural resources.

Prigozhin attracted attention in the United States, where he and a dozen other Russians were charged by the Department of Justice for creating the Internet Research Agency, a “troll farm” that focused on interfering in the 2016 US presidential election. The case was later dropped.

After Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, Wagner emerged as one of Moscow’s most capable fighting forces. He played a key role in the capture of the eastern bastion of Bakhmut in May 2023.

The Kremlin allowed Prigozhin to swell Wagner’s ranks with convicts, who were offered amnesty after serving six months at the front. He said 50,000 were recruited and 10,000 of them died in the fierce battle for Bakhmut.

The war contributed to Wagner’s reputation for brutality. A video that surfaced in November 2022 showed a former Wagner mercenary who allegedly defected to the Ukrainian side but was later captured by Russia being beaten to death with a sledgehammer, the symbol of the mercenary group.

For months into 2023, Prigozhin complained bitterly that top military commanders were denying his forces needed munitions in Ukraine. In open political infighting, he attacked then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov in profane rants on social media, blaming them for military setbacks and accusing them of corruption.

The Ministry of Defense’s order to Wagner to sign contracts with the regular army seemed to be the final trigger for Prigozhin’s extraordinary rebellion on June 23 and 24.

His mercenaries quickly seized the southern Russian military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, supposedly hoping to capture Shoigu and Gerasimov. But they weren’t there.

Prigozhin ordered his forces to advance towards Moscow, saying that this was not a military coup but a “march of justice” to overthrow his enemies. The mercenaries shot down several military planes along the way, killing more than a dozen pilots. Security forces in Moscow continued alerts and checkpoints were established on the southern outskirts.

At the height of the crisis, Putin appeared on television and called his former protégé’s rebellion a “betrayal” and “treason.” He promised to punish those behind this.

But Prigozhin abruptly aborted the march hours later in an amnesty deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. The mercenary forces were offered the option of moving to Belarus, withdrawing from service, or signing contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Prigozhin later said he launched the uprising after “losing his temper” in infighting with his enemies. Some commentators said he apparently hoped to persuade Putin to side with him against the military top brass, a serious miscalculation.

On August 23, two months after the rebellion, a business plane carrying Prigozhin, 62, and his top associates crashed while flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg, killing all seven passengers and a crew of three.

State investigators have yet to say what caused the crash.

A preliminary assessment by US intelligence concluded that there was an intentional explosion on board. Western officials pointed to a long list of Putin’s enemies who have been killed.

The Kremlin has denied involvement and rejected Western accusations that Putin was behind it as an “outright lie.”

Prigozhin was buried in his hometown of Saint Petersburg in a private ceremony.

Several thousand Wagner mercenaries moved to a camp in Belarus after the mutiny. Shortly after Prigozhin’s death, most left that country to sign contracts with the Russian military to redeploy to Africa or return to fight in Ukraine. Only a handful stayed in Belarus to train their army.

The Russian authorities formed a successor to Wagner, Africa Corps, using it to expand military cooperation with countries there. Moscow has become the security partner of choice for several African governments, displacing traditional allies such as France and the United States.

Elements of Wagner and other private security companies continue to operate in Ukraine under the control of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian National Guard.

“Despite the spectacular demise of Prigozhin himself and the trouble Wagner got into as a result, the model – the idea of ​​a private company profiting from this war – is attractive to many people in Russia.” said Sam Greene of the Center for European Policy Analysis.

Prigozhin’s disappearance sent a chilling message to Russian elites, helping Putin contain the damage to his authority inflicted by the rebellion.

Repression against their political enemies continued, and many fled the country or ended up in prison. His biggest opponent, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic penal colony in February.

In an election held in March, Putin won another six-year term. In a subsequent cabinet reshuffle, Putin removed Prigozhin’s archenemy Shoigu as defense minister, replacing him with Andrei Belousov, an economics expert. Shoigu, who had personal ties to Putin, was given the high-profile post of secretary of the Russian Security Council.

“If Shoigu’s new position had been too junior, it would have been humiliating and could have triggered criticism of the outgoing minister highlighting the army’s weaknesses: something to be avoided in times of war,” Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center said. in a comment.

At the same time, Shoigu’s entourage was facing purges. A former associate and deputy, Timur Ivanov, and several other senior military officers were arrested on corruption charges, and other senior Defense Ministry officials lost their jobs.

Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff and another enemy of Prigozhin, has retained his position until now.

General Sergei Surovikin, who reportedly had close ties to Prigozhin, was stripped of his position as deputy commander of forces in Ukraine and given a ceremonial post. Surovikin, who is credited with creating the multiple defensive lines and fortifications that blunted Ukraine’s offensive a year ago, was not entirely fired, and some observers suggest he could eventually be assigned a new military post.