Kadyrov made a statement on Friday, announcing that as a result of negotiations, it was agreed that the
former mercenaries would join the Chechen special forces unit Akhmat.
The negotiations were conducted with the leader of the Wagnerites, Alexander Kuznetsov, who uses the nickname Ratibor.
Kadyrov explained that vacancies in the Akhmat unit had been provided by the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and that the former Wagner forces would report to the MoD rather than the Rosgvardia command.
Reports indicate that the Russian MoD is “formalizing control over some elements of the remaining Wagner Group force — an objective it has been pursuing since 2023,” the ISW states.
Analysts believe that
it was the MoD's attempts to take over the Wagner Group that caused the formation's owner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to launch an unsuccessful mutiny in June 2023.
One Russian mil blogger also accused Kadyrov of “exaggerating the number of transferred Wagner personnel, claiming that most Wagner personnel hate Kuznetsov and are located in Africa,” the ISW reported.
Another Kremlin-linked blogger reported that
“Wagner forces previously formed the Kamerton detachment under Akhmat Spetsnaz and that the Russian MoD did not ban this detachment from using Wagner symbology, networks, and management systems,” the ISW noted.
