Editorial on the attempted coup against the Kremlin chief: the end of those who understand Putin

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The break finally came on Friday. Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, loyal to President Vladimir Putin for many years, said the unspeakable: the Kremlin invented the reason for the attack on Ukraine, but there were no previous attacks on Russia. The official reason for war, the ‘denazification’ of the neighboring country, is as nonsensical as the reports of the Russian leadership’s military success.

Since then, the situation has escalated: the Wagner mercenaries took control of Russia’s Rostov-on-Don and yesterday fought the army in the metropolis of Voronezh; Moscow has declared a state of anti-terrorism. The specter of civil war was already circulating.

This coup attempt ends a legend that Putin sympathizers, dogmatists of neutrality and “pacifists” of all persuasions like to spread: the story that the Kremlin boss strengthens the geopolitical balance of power, is a reliable ally and keeps the oligarchs in check, in short : that Vladimir Putin stands for stability.

The ex-KGB man has now gambled away this aura, and in an astonishingly clumsy way. For as long as anyone can remember, rulers have known that pampering their own armed forces is one of the highest commandments of power. The Caesars of ancient Rome pacified their legionnaires with above-average wages plus pensions. Researchers now know that the Great Wall of China served not only as a border guard, but also as a giant employment program for the militias of the Ming emperors. Bourbon king Louis XIV had the pompous Hôtel des Invalides built in Paris for the war invalids to secure the favor of the armed men.

But Putin did the opposite: he had Wagner fighters fired at with missiles. At least that is what Prigozhin claims. The president made another mistake by allowing the paramilitaries to go unchallenged for a long time.

The famous Florentine philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli warned about this mistake 500 years ago in his work “The Prince”. The Renaissance man advises to be particularly suspicious of the « capitani mercenarii »: «The leaders of the mercenary armies are either excellent men of the martial art or they are not: if they are, you cannot trust them, because they keep coming back fight in your own strength, conquer you, their Lord, or subdue others against your intent; but if a general is not good, he will destroy you in the usual way.”

Putin’s system is not yet ruined, but his defenders’ arguments are.

Source:Blick