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Putin’s troubles are only just beginning

The aftershocks of the short-lived Wagner mutiny will continue to reverberate at home and abroad, not least the question of what to do with Russia’s top military commanders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin giving a televised address in Moscow on June 24 in response to an attempted mutiny by the Wagner Group.

Russian President Vladimir Putin giving a televised address on June 24 after the Wagner Group of mercenaries threatened to march to Moscow.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Jonathan Eyal

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Military rebellions can usually be divided into two categories: those that succeed in overthrowing a government and therefore have long-term consequences, and those that fizzle out and are typically remembered as just a farce.

However, the

mutiny in Russia

over the weekend seems to belong to both categories. There is something both grizzly and comical about Yevgeny Prigozhin, the warlord in charge of the Wagner Group of mercenaries, who vowed to march on to Moscow and depose the Russian government, only to settle 36 hours later for

a legal pardon and exile in neighbouring Belarus.

But at the same time, what Prigozhin has started may change Russia’s history and could, therefore, have serious consequences.

Putin’s troubles are only just beginning

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