UK to influence global terrorist tag for Wagner group
By Daily Tab24. Updated: Sep 8, 2023.
Since the death of Prigozhin, the vision carrier of Wagner group – a Russian private army, the game of what becomes of the group is swinging on a balance of uncertainty. The death of Prigozhin was definitely going to create a vacuum, Putin knew, but what he didn’t know was what will become of the actions of others.
Prigozhin was murdered like most of the people that challenged Putin, while there was no hard evidence to factually point a finger at Putin, history points at him – those who question Putin die mysteriously. In the past, many have died through food poisoning, but Prigozhin died through controversial air accident.
According to unconfirmed reports, the private plane carrying Prigozhin was shot down in Moscow, while flying to the country home of the warlord, a report that was quickly discarded by US Intelligence community. There was unclear report that something happened while the private jet of Prigozhin was airborne, but no further clarification was made to that pointer.
Russian government said the private jet of the warlord crashed and promised to investigate the cause of the crash. Later on, a DNA test confirmed the death of Prigozhin, even after it was known he was a listed passenger on the crashed plane. Critics of Putin dubbed the investigation a formality, saying Prigozhin was deliberately murdered by Putin who is fond of killing those that disagree with him.
Prigozhin staged a half-baked coup three months ago, precisely two months after his death – a coup Putin described as stab in the back by his foot soldier. Putin went further to promise a reaction, but Prigozhin was unperturbed. He had said he had no intention to takeover power from Putin but only protested the incompetence of appointed military leaders.
Putin has began to make moves to take complete control of the Wagner group, and rebrand the private army while sustaining their status as a private army. Last month, Wagner fighters were asked to swear allegiance to the Russian government, an effort made to model them after a regular Russian army. While Russian government has not made any new announcement regarding the next leadership of the group, it is believed Putin is absorbing the fighters internally.
“Considering the legal nitty-gritty of the operations of the group, making the group a regular army will ultimately affect the discharge of their operations due to the statutes Russia signed with UN. So, Putin is trying to create a balance, where he can handle Wagner group fighters, to use them as a rogue army and also as a regular army if need arises” Daily Tab24 journalist familiar with the development said.
“UK has been monitoring the situation and they have their intelligence and spies everywhere and they know Putin has taken control of the group. You cannot leave such a rogue group in the hands of a dictator, the rogue group has presence anywhere they can, that is the message UK is passing, it is time to wade in and put something in their wheel” Daily Tab24 journalists added.
UK is now pushing for Wagner group to be tagged a terrorist group globally, and they see the move as a way to stop Putin. Reports made available earlier this week showed the government of UK was on course to officially gazette Wagner group a terrorist organization. The move means Wagner group cannot be funded through or in UK. Anybody associated or registered with the group will also be seen as a terrorist.
“UK will not stop within UK; they will go further, globally to making sure Putin’s wings are clipped. Wagner doesn’t recruit in UK and neither their funding through UK, so, UK government wants to start from somewhere and get to other places. They have a target and their target is global tag for Wagner group” Daily Tab24 analyst wrote.
