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Former the official representative of the People's Militia of the DLR, Eduard Basurin, announced the possible continuation of his military career in cooperation with the Wagner PMC. RBC asked a Donbas official if he would agree to work with Yevgeniy Prigozhin's company.
“There is no way to work directly for this organization,” Basurin said. – I will not officially join the structure of “musicians”, but I agree to cooperate with them.
He added that he intends to “engage in public information activities” and has established his own Telegram channel, but is not yet considering other proposals for cooperation.
On February 18, a number of military correspondents of the Russian Federation announced the release of Basurin and other people from the people's militias of the DLR and other power structures of Donbass. The reason given was that these people do not meet the criteria of officers of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation – they do not have the appropriate education, service rank. The next day, a video of Basurin's meeting with Prigozhin was published, during which he did not comment on the rumors about himself, but announced cases of dismissal of Donbas warlords and the negative impact of personnel changes on the motivation of fighters. A little later, Basurin confirmed to RBC that he is now a pensioner, and also explained that on the subject of the dismissal of military leaders, he had in mind a number of units – “it concerned the First Army Corps and the Second, Donetsk and Lugansk.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense later denied reports of the dismissal of the leaders of the 1st Donetsk Corps and the 2nd Guards Army of the Luhansk-North Donets Corps. The ministry said that after the units became part of the RF Armed Forces, “all soldiers <…> tasks with dignity and selflessness. According to some reports, Basurin was released from service before joining the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
Previously, the prospect of cooperation with the PMC was "Wagner" thought Igor Strelkov, who also participated since 2014 actions in Donbass. However, as a result of a public quarrel with the founder of the company Prigozhin, he refused the “vacant position”.