Every day since the start of the large-scale Russian war of aggression on Ukraine at the end of February 2022, the UK Ministry of Defense publishes its assessment of the situation in the conflict. Today, August 8, 2023, it is about the Rosgvardia armament.
Via X (formerly Twitter) writes the UK Ministry of Defense, “On August 4, 2023, President Putin signed a law allowing Rosgvardia, Russia’s national guard, to be equipped with heavy weapons.” And further, “The Rosgvardia, a sprawling organization of up to 200,000 front-line soldiers, was established in its current form in 2016 and is led by Putin’s former bodyguard Viktor Zolotov. The decision to bolster the force follows the failed Wagner mutiny of June 2023.” Despite Zolotov’s claim that his force behaved “excellently” during the mutiny, there is no evidence that Rosgvardia took any effective action against Wagner: “Exactly the kind of internal security threat it was meant to suppress.”
The UK Ministry of Defense concludes, “With Zolotov having previously indicated that the heavy equipment would include artillery and attack helicopters, this move indicates that the Kremlin wants to provide Rosgvardia with more resources as one of the key organizations ensuring the regime’s security.”
Kremlin.ru, Vladimir Putin (2022-09-20) 2, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image size modified)