Putin Reinforces Rosgvardia Troops With Heavy Armor After Wagner Coup

Russian President Vladimir Putin is arming his personal force of soldiers with "heavy weaponry" to strengthen Russia's National Guard following the Wagner mercenary mutiny in June, according to a new assessment.

On Friday, Putin introduced a new measure to furnish the force, also known as Rosgvardia, with heavy weaponry, which could include artillery supplies and attack helicopters, the British Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update on Tuesday. The move to boost Rosgvardia comes after the short-lived Wagner Group rebellion between June 23 and June 24, the ministry added.

In a brief but dramatic armed mutiny attempt, soldiers commanded by Russian oligarch and Wagner Group founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, marched towards Moscow after claiming control of sites in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. But the mutiny ended abruptly following a deal reportedly brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, with many Wagner recruits now based in Belarus.

The Wagner Group had provided the Kremlin with a mercenary force to use at it saw fit. Its troops had been involved in some of the fiercest fighting in eastern Ukraine until late May 2023.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in mid-July that Wagner had handed over more than 2,000 pieces of military equipment following the mutiny, as well as over 2,500 tons of ammunition and 20,000 small arms. This could not be independently verified.

"After the coup, Russian armed forces seized the group's weapons and heavy equipment," a Lithuanian Defense Ministry spokesperson said in a statement to Newsweek in late July. "Without heavy weapons and combat armored vehicles, this group can only carry out very limited tasks."

Rosgvardia will soon be receiving heavy weaponry following Putin's August 4 declaration, which the U.K. Defense Ministry linked directly to Wagner's actions.

Rosgvardia has been dubbed Putin's "private army," and is not formally linked to Russia's military. Created in 2016, National Guard members report directly to the Kremlin leader and are led by Putin's former bodyguard, Viktor Zolotov. The force exists to "ensure state and public security [and] protect the rights and freedoms of man and citizen," according to the presidential decree that formed the National Guard.

In 2020, the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said the Rosgvardia's remit is "open for wide interpretation," but that many agreed the force was "created to give Putin more direct authority to control protests and possibly to protect him from a coup."

The National Guard is a "sprawling organisation of up to 200,000 front line personnel," the British Defense Ministry said, adding that by equipping it with heavy weaponry, the Kremlin could be "doubling down on resourcing Rosgvardia as one of the key organisations to ensure regime security."

Zolotov has claimed that the National Guard excelled during the mutiny, but there is "no evidence that Rosgvardia carried out any effective action against Wagner: exactly the sort of internal security threat it was designed to repress," the U.K. government said.

The National Guard has also been active in Ukraine, including involvement when Moscow moved to annex four regions in the east and south of the country in September 2022.

Rosgvardia units were involved with the referendums in these areas, which are not internationally recognized, the British Defense Ministry said at the time. "Rosgvardia units have played an important role in both combat and rear-area security in Ukraine," it said in late September.

Newsweek has reached out to the Kremlin for comment via email.