After military defeat, mafia war for territory will begin in Russia - former MP Yakovenko

Russian opposition politician and sociologist Ihor Yakovenko said this live on air of Studio West with Antin Borkovskyi program on Espreso TV channel.

"Process is clearly brewing in Russia and that will accelerate the fall of Putin's regime in parallel with the fact that this regime will suffer defeat on the battlefield. This is what is called the transition of imperialist war to mafia war. Now privatization of the army is taking place. After all, who is Prigozhin? This is a completely pathological  phenomenon - privatization of the army, transformation of the army into a private one with the support of the state. Prigozhin is a person who created a private military company that is fully financed by the state," he said.

According to Yakovenko, currently Prigozhin's troops make up 20% of the Russian army at the front.

"These are the most combat-capable units. And this is an absolutely pathological situation. And there are almost 20 such private military companies, slightly smaller. Kadyrov actually has a private army, Timchenko, Putin's wallet, has a private army. Shoigu himself also has a private army. This is amazing: the minister of defense is creating a private army! This is despite the fact that he is actually minister of the same army created by the Russian state," politician emphasized.

In his opinion, such stretching of the armies is preparation for mafia war.

"Almost all political entities that claim separate pieces of property on the territory of Russia are trying to establish their own army. They are already looking over Putin, over his shoulder, into the future where Putin is no longer there. I believe that as a result of serious military defeat, kind of "Ukrainian Stalingrad", which will be the defeat of Russian-fascist troops, federal government will be so weakened that Putin's support group from among the security services will stop being afraid and mafia war for the division of Russia will begin," Yakovenko believes.

He added that Russia is ready for disintegration.

"This is an empire that has very powerful internal centrifugal tendencies, and this mafia war for division will tear Russia to pieces. After that, war will stop, it will move deep into Russia. Such a scenario seems likely," ex-deputy of the Russian parliament emphasized.

According to Yakovenko, there may be attempts to transfer power, but such a story will not be successful.

"Today, the peculiarity of Putin's dictatorship is that it is personalistic, a lot is tied to Putin. It is impossible to simply switch everything to Patrushev's son, for example, as many are talking about. Because there are various clans for whom Putin is a supreme arbiter who regulates relations between these clans and does not allow them to collide directly in the clan encirclement of the Kremlin. To switch all this to another person is not certain. There will be an attempt, if something happens to Putin, they will try to do something, but there will be no single Führer," politician believes.

He did not rule out attempts at collective leadership.

"They will try to act as a united front, they will say that instead of Putin they will be there now. But there is no doubt that there is a high probability that such a controlled "transit" will turn into a mafia war. Therefore, most likely, if Putin is removed or he dies a natural death, the country will certainly fall into turmoil. This is the periodic state of Russia, it is not only the 17th century - it is also the First Russian Revolution and October Revolution, in fact, these are classic examples of turmoil. And this is exactly the kind of turmoil that awaits Russia after the inevitable defeat in the Ukrainian war,"  Yakovenko concluded.