Putin is beefing up his security services because he's fearful there could be another armed rebellion, report says

• Russia has moved to strengthen its national guard after the Wagner rebellion.
• The move suggests that the Kremlin doesn't believe the threat of mutiny has passed, the ISW said.

The Kremlin is seeking to strengthen national guard units in a sign that Russian President Vladimir Putin fears the threat of another armed mutiny, according to The Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The think-tank cited a report in Russian daily Vedemosti which stated that police chiefs are considering reassigning special units of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service to Rosgvardiya, the Russian national guard.

The Rosgvardiya answers directly to Putin, and was created in 2016 to combat internal security threats. Analysts say one of the core purposes of the force is to protect against challenges to Putin's power.

"Russia watchers largely agree that Rosgvardiya was created to give Putin more direct authority to control protests and possibly to protect him from a coup,"said a report by the Center for Strategicand International Studies.

The planned reassignment, the report said, came after Putin met with police and security chiefs in the wake of the armed uprising by the Wagner mercenary group on June 23.

The rebellion was the most serious challenge to Putin's power in more than two decades, with rebels demanding the ouster of military chiefs meeting little resistance as they seized control of the city of Rostov-on-Don then advanced on Moscow. The rebellion was called off after Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin brokered a deal with the Kremlin.

In the wake of the rebellion Putin has sought to re-establish his authority, and is believed to have launched a search for potential traitors in the military who may've backed the uprising, with Russian general Sergei Surovikin reportedly placed under arrest.

"The alleged restructuring of Russia's internal security forces suggests that the Kremlin is working to build an effective anti-rebellion force following Wagner's armed rebellion," the ISW said.

"The fact that these purported changes are happening following the rebellion indicates that the Kremlin was correctly dissatisfied with the performance of security forces, which failed to stop or even contest Wagner's march on Moscow, and suggests that the Kremlin has not ruled out the risk of future such rebellions."

According to Vedemosti, the planned reassignment of the units has drawn criticism, with opponents saying the Rosgvardiya isn't as well trained or as effective as the special drugs units.

Putin's invasion of Ukraine has exposed rifts among military leaders, with Prigozhin in a series of videos before the rebellion accusing military leaders of botching the invasion. In exile in Belarus, he has claimed he did not seek to challenge Putin's authority in the uprising.