President Vladimir Putin met with a former top Wagner commander, Andrei Troshev, and tasked him with overseeing volunteer fighting units in Ukraine.
In a video released on Friday, President Putin was seen consulting with one of the Wagner mercenary group’s most senior former commanders.
The conference served as a reminder of the Kremlin’s effort to demonstrate that the state had now taken control over the mercenary group following a failed rebellion by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was later murdered in an August plane crash along with other senior commanders.
State television showed Putin meeting with Andrei Troshev, a former Wagner commander known by his alias “Sedoi,” or “grey hair,” at the Kremlin.
The meeting, according to the Kremlin, happened late on Thursday. Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the deputy defence minister, who has recently visited a number of nations where Wagner mercenaries have operated, was also present and sat closest to Putin.
The topic of “volunteer units that can perform various combat tasks, especially, of course, in the zone of the special military operation,” was discussed in the meeting.
“You yourself have been fighting in such a unit for more than a year,” Putin said.
“You are aware of what it entails, how it is carried out, and the problems that must be dealt with beforehand in order for combat operations to be carried out as effectively and successfully as possible,” he added.
Troshev was seen leaning forward, nodding, and listening intently to Putin while holding a pencil.
Since Prigozhin’s failed June 23 mutiny and his passing on August 23, when Putin ordered Wagner fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to the Russian state—which Prigozhin and many of his men had opposed—the fate of Wagner has remained unknown.
Days after the Wagner mutiny, according to the Russian publication Kommersant, Putin proposed that Troshev succeed Prigozhin.
According to the meeting in the Kremlin, Troshev and Yevkurov will now be in charge of what is left of Wagner.