Putin has placed highest stake on Shoigu and Gerasimov - military expert Chernyk

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

"Prigozhin will suffer a very serious defeat in the confrontation between the Kremlin towers. But I would not underestimate this man, because he is quite a cunning fox and has a tremendous experience of survival in those undercover backroom battles. In addition, we must not forget that there are up to 420,000 inmates in Russia, and this is a lot, so they will continue to recruit them for the war against Ukraine," the military expert noted.

Petro Chernyk highlighted the information that the Central African Republic (CAR - ed.) is under the external control of the Wagner PMC, and that the CAR has granted them the right to mine gold with a total turnover of up to USD 1 billion per year, an incredibly high number.

"This means that Prigozhin has the resources and he will fight till the end. We have to understand that the defeat of any Kremlin tower will lead to the physical death of their leaders, the stakes are huge. Of course, it's good that these spiders have started a deadly dance with each other, but in the grand scheme of things, we shouldn't count on it. Moreover, the return of Shoigu and Gerasimov to the game means that Putin is placing the highest stake on them. Stalin did something similar when he appointed Zhukov as Chief of the General Staff during World War II. Indeed, the stakes are the highest of all possible, but I think that a resolution in the confrontation between the towers is also inevitable. The only question is who will deliver the final fatal blow and when," Chernyk said.

• On January 11, Russian media reported that the head of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, was appointed commander of the joint grouping of troops fighting against Ukraine.

• On January 12, the Institute for the Study of War noted that Putin appointed Gerasimov to weaken the influence of Prigozhin and the security forces.

• On January 23, British intelligence reported that the conflict in Russia between Gerasimov and Prigozhin was deepening.