Wagner Group Chief loses support of Russians after mutiny; he could compete with Putin before

A Russian news agency, citing the independent social group Russian Field, has reported that before the rebellion in Russia, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), had support among the population, and many Russians would have supported his candidacy for president. However, everything changed after two days of the mercenaries' uprising.

Source: The Insider

Quote: "Various sociological groups say that shortly before the 'uprising', Prigozhin was at the peak of his popularity.

And he was ranked second only to Putin as a candidate for the next president among those respondents who agreed to talk to sociologists.

However, he lost all his support after the coup, and both Putin and Shoigu [the Russian Defence Minister] suffered reputational damage along with him."

Details: The independent social group Russian Field conducted a telephone survey in May 2023 to find out what the preferred candidate for the next president of Russia was.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin came first among those who responded, followed by Prigozhin, who came in second for the first time in the survey’s history. A total of 2% of Russians were ready to vote for him.

Meanwhile, back in February, almost 15% of respondents knew nothing about Prigozhin at all.

Sociologists noted that this is a particularly high ranking since no other federal politician has ever had such a level of support.

Before the start of the mutiny (16-19 June), Russian Field once again assessed the attitudes of Russians towards the so-called "special military operation" [the name the Russia propaganda calls the war against Ukraine – ed.] and leading Russian politicians, adding Prigozhin to the survey.

Almost half of those surveyed said they approved of the mercenary leader's activities. Based on the results of that poll, support for Prigozhin's activities increased from 41% to 55% compared to February.

Russian Field launched a new poll on 23 June, immediately after the start of the rebellion, to determine the instantaneous change in attitudes towards "Putin’s Chef" [Prigozhin is called "Putin's chef" since he owns restaurants and catering companies providing services for the Kremlin].

Following the events of 23-24 June, attitudes towards Prigozhin have deteriorated sharply, but 29% of respondents still support his actions.

Prior to the rebellion, only slightly more than 50% of respondents knew about the conflict between Prigozhin and the Russian MoD, with 45% siding with Prigozhin and only 12%  with the Russian MoD.

After the rebellion, the situation "flipped", as now 41% of respondents said that they were closer to the position of the Russian Ministry of Defence in the conflict, and 20% remained on Prigozhin’s side.

The latest June poll indicated that 20% of respondents believe that the Wagner PMC had a chance to stage a military coup, and two-thirds of respondents said they were satisfied with the outcome of the conflict.

Background: The Wagner Group fought in Ukraine, most actively in Bakhmut, but they withdrew to field camps in late spring.

On 24 June, the Wagner PMC launched an armed rebellion in Russia due to a conflict with the Russian military command, but in the evening of that day, after a conversation with Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Yevgeny Prigozhin said that his mercenaries were heading back to their field camps. The criminal case against Prigozhin in Russia was closed, and he was supposed to "go to Belarus".

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