Despite the resignation of the Wagner boss and his mercenaries: the throne of the Kremlin boss begins to shake

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The monument to his power was carved in clear lines over the more than 20 years of his reign. Vladimir Putin (70), omnipotent and fearless. Ruthless and unforgiving to his political opponents. Authoritarian, even with the Russian money elite. The modern tsar, militarily heavily armed, was feared all over the world for a long time. This power always legitimized the permanent rule of the president.

The monument to the Kremlin chief has been shaking since last weekend. Startled by the armed rebellion of a mercenary army that openly threatens a military coup. But instead of suppressing the uprising by force, Putin allows his former cook Yevgeny Prigozhin (62) and his Wagner group to take the main military headquarters of the Russian army in the south of the country and up to 200 kilometers from Moscow almost without resistance . Observers rub their eyes.

Prigozhin is allowed to go into exile – without prosecution

In a TV address on Saturday night, Putin compared the advance of the private militia to the 1917 revolution, calling the rebels traitors and announcing harsh punishments. But then he has a foreign ruler, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, recall the rebellious Wagner boss and finally publicly withdraws. Prigozhin is allowed to go into exile in Belarus without prosecution. His mercenaries are also not threatened with a trial, Putin promised. And that in Russia, where the smallest protest, no matter how quiet, is clubbed down.

Why didn’t the army and national guard stop the rebel advance? Are there even secret alliances between military units and the Wagner Group? Has Putin really slipped out of his empire? Or, as some doubters are starting to speculate boldly, is Prigozhin just a puppet of the Kremlin boss and the coup attempt orchestrated from above? To put it further, should an imminent coup d’état “endanger” Russia enough to warrant martial law and thus military mobilization?

Putin will have Prigozhin killed in Belarus

For most international observers, Putin’s procrastination is a clear sign of a loss of control. In its most recent analysis, the Institute for War Studies (ISW) identifies clear weaknesses in internal security. Selensky adviser Mykhailo Podoliak (43) sees the Wagner uprising as “the beginning of the end of Putin” and the possibility of Russian troops joining the Wagner group, Podolyak said in an interview with “La Repubblica”.

For months Yevgeny Prigozhin is allowed to rant against Russian warfare and accuse the military elite of incompetence. Putin lets him do it. He is not warned, arrested or even killed. Why does Putin hesitate when it comes to Prigozhin? Has he underestimated the power of the entrepreneur? Or are the militant Wagner mercenaries so important to him militarily? The monster that Putin created now corners the Kremlin czar. Putin never forgives his traitors. And Prigozchin is now one of them, Jill Dougherty (74) is convinced. “It is quite possible that Prigozhin will be killed in exile,” said the former head of CNN’s Moscow bureau.

The current crisis will fuel Putin’s suspicions, making him even more dangerous and unpredictable – to his opponents or to anyone who considers Putin to be his opponents. The attempted uprising is one of many military and political defeats Putin has suffered since the start of the war in Ukraine. The president desperately needs a victory. Especially a military one. That makes him even more dangerous for Ukraine.

Source: Blick