The short-lived rebellion of Wagner Group chairman Yevgeny Prigozhin has forced a closer look at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power. Russia’s political system is “showing its weaknesses, and its military power is cracking,” EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell told a summit of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.
There are questions about the whereabouts of Putin and Prigogine — neither of whom have been seen in public since the episode ended — and about the future of Prigogine’s mercenaries in Wagner’s group.
Here’s the latest on war and its ripple effects around the world.
Now, following the short-lived rebellion, Prigozhin has been exiled to Belarus, a more isolated dictatorship than Russia and often referred to as Europe’s North Korea, Mary Ilyushina reports.
On some levels, Prigozhin’s most brazen gamble clearly backfired—his insurgency ended without ousting his arch-enemies, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov, the overall commanders of the war in Ukraine. But he hasn’t entirely lost his personal mercenary flair, and he appears to have won some acclaim in Russia: he got a famous send-off as he left the city of Rostov-on-Don after news of his deal with Putin broke. , many locals rushed to clap and take selfies.
