Putin Survives, With Permanent Damage – WSJ

The biggest surprise about Yevgeny Prigozhin s armed rebellion against Russia s military generals is that the Kremlin had clear warnings that a coup attempt was imminent and did nothing to prevent it.

Mr. Prigozhin, financier of the Wagner Group private army, has conducted a bitter feud with Vladimir Putin s generals for months. But recently he went to alarming extremes. In early June, after Wagner forces captured the commander of Russia s 72nd Brigade, Mr. Prigozhin s social-media channel showed a video in which the officer confessed to ordering his troops to fire on a Wagner convoy. That same day, Mr. Prigozhin called for Russia s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff, to be executed by a firing squad because of Russia s failing campaign in Ukraine. He warned of a civil war in Russia similar to what occurred in 1917 if the military leadership wasn t replaced.

via www.wsj.com