A friend of Yevgeny Prigozhin could be the new defense minister.

A number of influential Telegram-based media outlets in Russia report that President Vladimir Putin is at the point of dismissing Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu and General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov.

Instead, General Sergey Surovikin would take over as the head of the General Staff and the Tula Region’s governor Alexey Dyumin, a former bodyguard of the Russian leader, would be appointed as the minister of defense, according to Meduza, a Russian-language outlet based in Latvia. 

Dyumin, who served as a deputy defense minister between December 2015 and February 2016 in the rank of lieutenant-general, is also believed to be a patron of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder and leader of the private military company Wagner.

The two have known each other for a long time and are on friendly terms. It is alleged that Prigozhin offered his support to Dyumin during his election as governor in 2016. 

The departure of Shoygu and Gerasimov from their posts was one of Prigozhin’s demands during the 23 June mutiny that saw thousands of Wagner mercenaries marching towards Moscow. According to Russian propagandists, Dyumin was one of Putin’s informal negotiators with Prigozhin who helped end the crisis.

Although it looks like the Wagner boss won and the Kremlin leader succumbed to his demands, Russian military prosecutors were still gathering evidence early this week to press criminal charges against Prigozhin.