MI6 knowledgeable identifies two Wagner chiefs he thinks might deliver terror on Putin

An MI6 knowledgeable has named the 2 main Wagner commanders he thinks might take over from Yevgeny Prigozhin after he reportedly died in a aircraft crash in Russia.

Prigozhin is assumed to have been travelling on an plane that was additionally carrying Dmitry Utkin, the alleged co-founder of Wagner and a former hitman. Unverified experiences on Telegram say 10 folks have been aboard the Embraer Legacy 600 that exploded on Wednesday afternoon.

It will depart the Wagner Group, a personal navy firm, in search of new leaders for its regime. Prigozhin, a former Vladimir Putin aly, had change into essential of the Kremlin in June, resulting in an armed-rebellion marching into Russia.

The troopers seized the Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don and commenced marching in the direction of Moscow. But the seige was called-off and so they retreated, with Prigozhin reportedly exiled to Belarus.

Now Chris Steele, an MI6 intelligence officer who was energetic between 1987 and 2009 has named two Wagner commanders he thinks might tackle the management position. Speaking to BBC Newsnight, he additionally says he does not assume Putin would have been the one to order any operation that led to the aircraft happening.

He mentioned: “I’m not sure I think it was Putin directly who ordered this. Quite often these hits are done by people maybe at the next rank down and Putin gives a nod and a wink.

“We know close to Prigozhin specifically, he was deeply unpopular amongst among the actually highly effective folks round Putin, clearly [Sergei] Shoihgu and likewise Nikolai Patrushev, who’s the secretary of the safety council. So I believe Putin might have given a nod and a wink however the oepration would have been organised by others.

“[The death of Utkin] is obviously a significant blow because Utkin was effectively the founder of Wagner, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t other senior Wagner commanders who have strong reputations and so on.

“There are two specifically that we have come throughout in our reporting. One is a man known as Troshev and there is one other man known as Aleksandr Kuznetsov, each of whom have performed a big position, specifically each in Ukraine but in addition in among the Wagner operations in Africa and Syria.”

Andrei Troshev currently serves as the Wagner Group chief of staff. Last month he was named by Putin as his preferred choice to replace Prigozhin in the top seat. Troshev was previously an agent for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and was awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation for his military service.

Known as “Sedoi” which means “gray hair” in Russian, he has been regarded as one of the group’s most senior figures. He played a large part in Wagner’s work in Syria.

Kuznetsov meanwhile is said to have been active as a professional soldier, having previously served in the special forces. Reports suggest he was injured in Tripoli in 2019.

He was filmed raising the Russian flag and the banner of Wagner Group when soldiers claimed the last high-rise building in Bakhmut earlier this year. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy nonetheless denied claims Russia had taken management of the town.