Margolin (2024:14): “it had long seemed that one of the key advantages the group provided to Russia was deniability.”
Margolin (2024:34): Argues that, from 2011-2012, “the Kremlin leaned harder on the businessmen who had made their fortunes thanks to the blessings of Putin's political system. The Kremlin needed these entrepreneurs, who could cow the opposition at home and establish Russian influence abroad in ways that the state could not or would not. Putin had taken Russia's runaway capitalism and tamed it with the power of the state. The private actors who were now beholden to Putin could perform favours for the Kremlin at a lower political cost, faster and with a veneer of deniability.” Sees Putin as setting the direction, and those beneath him, including the businessmen, as reading the signs and finding a way to execute [In this reading, the drive and the goals are set by the Kremlin, but the method of achieving them and delivering comes from Prigozhin. He was simply the most ambitious and creative.]
Klein (2025:19): identifies three advantages of using “covert mobilisation,” such as PMCs and volunteer units: larger recruitment pool, financial burden-sharing, and reduced public discontent through concealed losses and avoided conscription.