His profile became so prominent that aides and analysts began speculating that he aspired for an official job or career in politics.
However, there is now growing evidence that the Kremlin has moved to nip such speculation in the bud, ordering Prigozhin to stop his public criticism of the Defense Ministry and allowing state media to name him or Wagner. advised to stop.
Prigozhin confirmed last week that he had also been stripped of the right to recruit convicts from prisons – a key pillar of his nascent political influence and one that has helped his forces make small but steady gains in eastern Ukraine, where They are getting close to capture. Bakhmut city.
Olga Romanova, director of a prisoner rights group, said the defense ministry had taken over the recruitment of convicts earlier this year. The ministry has not confirmed this.
The position of the “(Kremlin) political bloc is not to let him into politics. They are a bit afraid of him and find him an inconvenient person,” Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser who lives close to officials, told Reuters. .
political player?
Tatiana Stanovaya, a veteran Kremlin scholar, wrote in a paper for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that, while Prigozhin’s downfall did not seem imminent, his relationship with the presidential administration was beginning to crack.
“Domestic policy observers don’t like his political demography, his attacks on official institutions, or his attempt to troll Putin’s staff by threatening to form a political party, which would be a headache for everyone in the Kremlin,” she wrote.
“He has not just become a public figure, he is clearly turning into a full-fledged politician with his own views.”
According to Markov, the Kremlin has received a promise from Prigozhin that he will not form his own political movement or join a parliamentary party unless told to do so by the Kremlin.
“(The message is) we will give you military resources, but don’t get involved in politics right now,” Markov said.
Prigozhin told a Russian interviewer on Friday that he had “zero” political ambitions.
Markov, who described Prigozhin as extremely confrontational, said he believed that Putin had asked Prigozhin to stop public criticism of top officials at a meeting in St. Petersburg around 14 January.
Markov said he did not have full details of who said what at the meeting and Reuters was not able to verify the accuracy of his claim.
Prigozhin has since moderated his criticism and said in a rare interview on Friday, looking at the camera, that he was not criticizing anyone.