Could Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the notorious Wagner Group, be a potential successor to Vladimir Putin as Russian president? There is new speculation about Putin’s health after a recent photo revealed what appears to be a scar on his neck.

Straight Arrow News contributor Larry Lindsey says the Wagner head replacing Putin as Russia’s next leader makes a lot of sense if you understand recent Russian history.

Next March, March 2024, Russia has its presidential election. Now, it’s not exactly free and fair … but it’s still an election. And it is the way in which the Russian government changes who’s at stake. And the questions come up, well, maybe Putin could be replaced in that election. Not defeated, mind you, but he could arrange the election as a way of transferring power — sort of — to somebody else. 

He’s done that before. In 2008 after two terms, Putin turned the presidency over to Dmitry Medvedev and then became the prime minister. Four years later, Putin took back the presidency and Medvedev became head of the security council of Russia. It’s all very tidy over there, you know, keep it all in the family or the extended family, if you will.

Well, now, there’s a new name that’s being circulated. And that is, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Now, the problem with him is that he has, shall we say, a very interesting resume for someone who might be president of a nuclear power. 

Now … his current job is president or head of the Wagner Group, which is a group of brutal mercenaries, that’s warriors for hire, who’ve operated in Africa, the Middle East, and now are operating in Ukraine. His background seems almost ideal to head that kind of position. At age 18, Prigozhin was arrested for theft. He ended up being released. But then two years later, he was arrested again, for theft, fraud, and involving minors in organized crime. He was sentenced to 12 years in a maximum-security Soviet prison.