Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin admits interfering in US elections(theguardian.com) |
Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin admits interfering in US elections(theguardian.com) |
There is a strategy sometimes used in the US in which if you can get the "other party" (whichever one that is for you) to attack you more, your status is elevated with your own side. Prigozhin is, by this point, clearly making a play for the post-Putin leadership of Russia. He is boasting to Russians that he can influence US (and other) elections, but that doesn't actually mean that he can, any more than he can achieve battlefield success with the Wagner group in Ukraine. But, if it results in a bunch of western (esp. left-leaning) outlets vilifying him, it elevates his status with the Russian right.
That said whatever happens Prigozhin's rep has been steadily increasing this SMO, given Wagner's performance relative to the regular army.