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Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group founder has gone to war with the Russian military leadership. The leader of the notorious private military company began flooding the internet with gruesome photos of dead Russian soldiers to drive his point home.

He has accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov of deliberately choking off their ammunition supply, leading to the deaths of Wagner fighters in Ukraine.

Prigozhin's outrage is rapidly spreading throughout the ranks of pro-war military bloggers. The bloggers have been supporters of Putin’s war. And bolstered his public support in 2022.

The public feud between Wagner and the Russian military command is threatening to overshadow the "everything is going according to plan and we're all united" message Putin wants to send ahead of the one-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

While Putin took was onstage at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium for his massive pro-war rally Wagner supporters flooded the chat of an online live stream of the event. They sent angry messages demanding the military "give ammunition to Wagner!" 

Prigozhin was known for using online armies long before he admitted to being the puppet master of a real-life mercenary group. And he is suspected of unleashing the messages.

Polls show support for Wagner Group founder 

Several pro-Kremlin Telegram channels have also begun conducting polls on who followers would want to see win in the "terrible confrontation" – Shoigu and Gerasimov, or Prigozhin. Ninety-six percent of the more than 15,000 people who responded to one poll on Tuesday voted for Prigozhin.

However, anger at the Russian military command has spread far beyond Prigozhin and even Wagner.

 Igor Bezler is one of the Kremlin's most well-known proxy commanders from Russia's first wave of aggression against Ukraine in 2014. He has called for Shoigu and Gerasimov to be assassinated. And Bezler’s intercepted call with an FSB officer was released by Ukrainian intelligence.

Bezler wasn't the only one to float the idea of putting a "bullet in the head" of the country's top military brass. On Wednesday, the Wagner-connected Telegram channel "Grey Zone" shared that unnamed military officials were saying that if the top brass lacked the "honor" to kill themselves for their mistakes, they could take off their uniforms to stop bringing "shame."

The growing animosity between the Russian military leadership and the private military company is a sign of the deepening divisions within the Russian military establishment. It highlights the disillusionment among the Russian public with the country's military adventure in Ukraine. And the unhappiness is increasing with the death of a generation of Russian soldiers.

The Kremlin's reliance on private military companies like Wagner to fight its wars is a double-edged sword.

 On the one hand, it allows the Russian military to pursue its strategic objectives without the public scrutiny and accountability that comes with using regular troops. On the other hand, it exposes the Kremlin to the risk of losing control of its private military through the efforts of the founder of the Wagner Group.

The war in Ukraine is far from over, and the deepening rift between the Russian military leadership and private military companies like Wagner will likely make the situation even more unpredictable and dangerous. 

It remains to be seen how the Kremlin will navigate this growing crisis and whether it will be able to maintain its hold on power amid rising public discontent with its military’s role in the costly war with Ukraine.