Putin names former Russian colonel as new mercenary head

Russian President Vladimir Putin has picked in person Wagner Group executive and former Russian military Col. Andrei Zakahrov as the new head of the private mercenary company that waged an insurgency against him. Zakahrov served in Chechnya, Afghanistan, and Syria, most notably helping Bashar Assad's regime defeat rebels during the Syrian civil war. The Assad regime used chemical weapons against rebels, among other measures, and as a result, Zakahrov was put on sanctions lists by the European Union and the U.K.

According to the Russian daily Kommersant and other outlets, Putin named Zakahrov as the new leader during a meeting with 35 Wagner Group commanders including rebel leader Yevgeny Prigozhin on June 29. "Continue the fight under this commander," Putin said at the meeting, referring to gray-haired Zakahrov by his call sign "Sedoi (meaning gray hair).”

Putin also suggested that the Wagner Group should be incorporated into the Russian regular army, to which most of the commanders nodded in a show of approval. Prigozhin, who was in the front row, did not see this act by his colleagues and reportedly rejected Putin's proposal.

While Rumors abounded about Prigozhin's whereabouts after the rebellion ended on June 24, the Belarusian military released on Saturday a photo of him in his underwear, looking shabbier than he had been in the past, huddled on a field bed in his country’s military. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said on July 6 that “Prigozhin is staying in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Russia." Since then, Prigozhin and other Wagner Group mercenaries are believed to have entered Belarusian territory and are participating in Belarusian military exercises.

The Financial Times reported that Russian authorities banned activities by Prigozhin's online propaganda unit, the Trolls, after he rebelled last month, but the group has continued to operate. The Trolls, who numbers around 300, used social media to justify Russia's invasion and create favorable public opinion for the Wagner Group, which is leading the war in Ukraine. "The 'fake media empire' founded by Prigozhin is becoming a bigger challenge to Putin and Russia," the Financial Times wrote.

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