“They will be dealt with blackly”: Piontkovsky spoke about the “mini-military coup in Putin’s bunker” and its consequences

According to the expert, Gerasimov and Shoigu forced Putin to reduce Prigozhin’s influence. Therefore, the protégé of the head of PMK “Wagner” Surovikin was removed from his post.

Within the Russian military and political leadership, there is a conflict situation due to failures at the front.

This was stated by Russian political scientist and publicist Andriy Piontkovskyi, informs “Apostrophe”.

The expert claims that on the night of January 11, “a mini-military coup took place” in Putin’s bunker. Then the head of the Ministry of Defense, Shoigu, and the chief of the General Staff, Gerasimov, forced Putin to remove Surovikin, whom Piontkovsky calls “Prigohyn’s appointee”, and appoint Gerasimov in his place.

“Since the summer, or even the spring of last year, Putin has been proving to society that the generals are to blame. He also let his two dogs off the leash – Prigozhin and Kadyrov, who incredibly insulted Gerasimov and Shoigu. They demanded that they be pardoned and sent to the front barefoot as privates to atone for the guilt… Everything was going to the point that Putin would do to Gerasimov the same way Stalin did to General Pavlov, whom he shot… But they did not wait for such a fate, and it must be said that this whole group of generals is quite united , and now they came and demanded that Putin stop this campaign and return Gerasimov,” the political scientist said.

According to him, the generals of the Russian Federation managed to convince Putin that Prigozhin’s ambitions are higher than just the role of a military leader, as he approached Volodymyr Zelenskyi with a proposal for negotiations. Allegedly, some documents were shown to the dictator to confirm this.

“In general, Prigozhin’s roof has already gone, and he has positioned himself as a future political leader. And so Gerasimov and Shoigu have achieved their goal, and now they are dealing with Prigozhin in a black way,” Piontkovsky concluded.

We will remind, on January 11, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov was appointed the commander of the United Group of Occupation Forces in Ukraine.

Serhii Surovikin, who stayed in this position for only three months, became Gerasimov’s deputy. The NYT explained why Putin appointed Gerasimov instead of Surovikin.

Previously, TSN.ua collected interesting opinions of experts, why Putin changed the leadership of the occupation army in Ukraine.

Read also: