Member-only story
Wagner Neutered — Prigozhin Exiled — Putin Weakened
What in the heck just happened in Russia? Perhaps more important, how will it affect Ukraine’s war effort moving forward?
Let’s analyze.
In what is perhaps a gross understatement, there were some interesting developments in Russia over the weekend.
Like a plot twist straight out of a Tom Clancy novel, a private military company led by a former-Putin warlord, Yevgeny Prigozhin, launched a coup against the conventional Russian military, even going so far as killing Russian soldiers and shooting down six Russian helicopters and one aircraft.
Once it became obvious that Prigozhin was encountering very little resistance (most of the Russian military Prigozhin encountered showed signs of supporting him) President Putin published an early-morning video accusing Prigozhin of treason and “stabbing Russia in the back.”
In the process, Prigozhin and his Wagner forces took the strategic city of Rostov encountering virtually no resistance.
Russia opened a criminal case against Prigozhin for armed mutiny.
For a full 24 hours, the West was captivated by the drama. Memories of 1991 came flooding back and the U.S. intelligence community privately worried about Russia’s nukes. After all, we got really lucky when the Soviet…
