A former top aide of President Vladimir Putin called yesterday Monday for the cessation of mercenary companies in Russia, some twenty-four hours after the mutiny of Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner, judging them to interfere with the proper functioning of the military hierarchy.

Vladislav Surkov, who during his career in the Russian business and political world acquired various nicknames (“Putin’s Rasputin”, and “the one who operates the puppets” were two of them), a figure feared by enemies and friends, he noted that “private military companies” are an idea introduced to Russia by the US, that they were created to engage in proxy wars.

“How can a military unit be private in our worldview? It is completely incompatible with Russian political, administrative and military culture,” Mr. Surkov, who stopped working at the Kremlin three years ago, said during an interview released by an associate.

The existence of mercenary companies, as Mr. Shurkov sees it, raises the risk that Russia will turn into a “Eurasian tribal zone of some kind” and that the military hierarchy will crumble as the country conducts what the Kremlin has dubbed a “special military operation” ( ESE) – the war – in Ukraine.

“Why do we need them today, when we are openly involved in the battle for Ukraine? This is not a proxy war, it is the ESU,” Mr. Surkov insisted.

“The army must be strengthened not only with weapons, but also with unity of command,” he added.

A top Kremlin official from 1999 to 2011 and beyond, Mr. Surkov was instrumental in President Putin’s effort to shape the tightly controlled political system in Russia today.

He referred to Mr Prigozhin using the term “oligarch” and recalling his past in the St Petersburg underworld.

In 1981, when he was 20, Yevgeny Prigozhin was sentenced to 13 years in prison for theft and assault, including strangling a woman until she passed out, according to documents from the time.

“This is the only thing you need to know about Prigozhin,” according to Mr. Surkov.

The person concerned said yesterday that the Wagner mutiny was not intended to overthrow the government of Russia, it was a protest against the ineffective way of conducting the war in Ukraine and an attempt to secure guarantees for the survival of the mercenary company.

Mr Prigozhin said last month that the nickname “Putin’s chef” which many use for him is absurd because he does not even know how to cook. He sarcastically suggested using the nickname “Putin’s Butcher.”