Vladimir Putin, Wagner Putin in an exciting move: – Very violent, says the expert

British newspaper The telegraph He writes that Putin has taken steps to strengthen the Russian National Guard. According to the newspaper, a special forces unit was said to have joined what is described as Putin’s private army of bodyguards.

In addition, the National Guard was reinforced with tanks, combat aircraft, and artillery. The change is said to have been ordered by Putin himself, who puts the special forces division Grom, which means thunder in Norwegian, under his command.

– By order of the President, the Grom administration will be transferred to the National Guard, along with all personnel and infrastructure, said State Duma member Alexander Khenstein.

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– worried the Kremlin

With a strength of 7,000 men, the Grom is said to have a reputation as one of the most powerful units in the Russian Special Forces. Putin formed the National Guard in 2016. The National Guard is led by Viktor Zolotov, Putin’s former bodyguard, and has up to 320,000 soldiers.

According to The Telegraph, an associate professor at University College London stated that the change is an attempt at a “Kremlin coup”. It is noteworthy that Putin should be afraid of the disloyalty of parts of the Russian National Guard.

– Perhaps this shows that the Kremlin is worried about future threats from within. Prigozhin’s rebellion increased the uncertainty surrounding the elite and the rest of the population supported the regime.

Russian National Guard

The senior researcher at the Norwegian Defense Research Institute, Tor Bukkvoll, previously worked on a project on the history of Russian special forces. Explains the role of the Russian National Guard.

– Its role is to put down rebellions locally and it has been involved from the beginning in Ukraine, because Ukraine is not considered a wholly foreign country to the Russians. But they are not trained in the same way as the regular army and have different equipment.

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But now it is said that their fighting ability has been greatly enhanced. Although Bukkvoll believes the tank part should be taken with a pinch of salt. He points out that several sources stated that there are no tanks left in Russia, because they are all in Ukraine.

– He’s very violent. They had tanks and artillery during the Chechen wars, but most of them were returned because a locally operated group shouldn’t need them, says Bukfull.

Consequences of the Wagner Rebellion

Like the British expert, Bukkvoll believes this is a direct result of Wagner’s group mutinying, as they turned only about 20 miles before the Russian capital.

– Some points are that Wagner did not stop, but himself. After all, Wagner had tanks and other armored vehicles. Previously, it was thought that would-be rebels had no such material, but the Wagner Group has refuted this, says Buckfull and adds:

What the uprising showed was that no one was willing to stop Wagner, so Putin must have been shocked.

Is the National Guard more loyal to Putin?

– I do not think that the National Guard participated directly in the fighting in Ukraine, like the rest of the armed forces. Perhaps a large part of the resistance in defense stems from the fact that they feel they have been sent into a war that was poorly planned, with poor equipment and poor management. So, there’s likely to be more loyalty among the National Guard, Buckfall says.

Putin’s loyal servant

The National Guard is what was previously called the local force in Russia. According to Buckfull, they were given a new name and were aimed more specifically at counterinsurgency. To this day, they are led by one of Putin’s former bodyguards, Viktor Zolotov. But what reputation does this Zolotov have?

He is very loyal to Putin and has a great willingness to use brute force. He is reputed to be not the smartest in the world. Buckfull says he came from the FSO, which is responsible for looking after the president in much the same way as the Secret Service in the United States.

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