The Russian General Who Stands To Gain Most From Wagner's Mutiny
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Russian National Guard chief Viktor Zolotov, the longtime bodyguard of President Vladimir Putin, emerged as one of the few winners
Viktor Zolotov during a meeting with officers of Russian army and secret services in Moscow, on June 27, 2023. Credit - Contributor/Getty Images
Among Putin’s henchmen, Zolotov’s background stands in sharp contrast to that of Prigozhin, the brash mutineer who ordered his men to advance on Moscow over the weekend. A convicted mugger and former hot dog vendor, Prigozhin wormed his way into Putin’s circle through a series of business deals and a willingness to do the state’s dirty work around the world, whether by interfering in American elections or propping up dictators in Africa and the Middle East. Zolotov, a creature of the system and a general of the Russian army, has spent most of his career within the Kremlin walls, starting as a bodyguard to President Boris Yeltsin in 1991 and continuing in that role under Putin.
But for Zolotov, it looks like an opportunity, and a sign of the direction that Russia might take. Threatened in Moscow and frustrated in Ukraine, Putin could fall back on the man who has been by his side from the beginning, the one responsible for staving off internal threats to the regime. For Putin, that might seem like a logical move as he steps back from the brink of a civil war. For the rest of the Russian elite, it could herald the beginning of a purge, one that Zolotov would be more than happy to conduct with the forces under his command.
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