Putin uses Prigozhin to intimidate Russia's military elite, suggesting they may not be needed - Come Back Alive Foundation analyst 

She shared the details with Espreso TV. 

"Putin actually needs Prigozhin as such a tool to achieve military goals by other, not purely military, means. That is, now all this rather loud controversy is allowed only because Putin himself has a certain disappointment in how the so-called 'special military operation' was planned, and there is a certain disappointment  in the way it was embodied by the very top of the Russian Federation's military elite. And that's why Prigozhin is kept as a figure who is more intimidating, who is shown to Shoigu and others from the point of view that you are not fighting well, if you continue in the same spirit, Prigozhin will simply be given a hint that he can count for more, and that you, as an army, are simply not needed, because you cannot implement the tasks set before you," Mariia Kucherenko said. 

The analyst of the Come Back Alive Foundation believes that such humiliation of the Russian army's military officers plays to Ukraine's advantage, because they are demoralized, which worsens the military strategy on the battlefield.

"But this game is actually very, very profitable from the point of view of demoralizing the officer personnel. They tell you that you don't know how to fight. You studied at a military school, at an academy, you graduated something there, you dreamed about something, and you had some ambitions. And here stands Prigozhin, who says something in front of the prisoners that Wagner PMC is a chance to "expiate the guilt before the Motherland." And that is why it is necessary to serve with the Wagner PMC and to become a hero. Being in the Wagner PMC is cooler than being in the army. Of course, we can talk about a certain humiliation of the military in general during such rhetoric, so in fact I would like to advise them to just move on," she said.