Putin's Biggest Mistakes in the Wagner Uprising
His address to the nation during the Wagner mutiny and the subsequent deal to let its leader off the hook suggest the Russian President is toast.
Small man, much reduced.
Photographer: Pavel Bednyakov/AFP via Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin is damaged goods. He may have survived this weekend’s mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group of mercenaries. In reacting as he did, though, Putin not only made himself even weaker, but planted the idea of his impotence in the minds of Russians and the world.
Of course Putin had to show himself and say something to the nation as Prigozhin’s mercenaries seized the southern Russian city of Rostov and started driving north toward Moscow. But what exactly? The mutineers were “betraying” the nation in its fight against “neo-Nazis” and the West, Putin asserted limply. That much was expected. The mistakes came next.