By Daniel DePetris
Russian President Vladimir Putin has always tried, generally successfully, to present himself as the man who calls the shots at the Kremlin. He has painted himself as a decisive leader, a man in complete control of the Russian political system and a master at balancing the elites around him to ensure no faction gets too powerful.
Then came a former hot dog vender named Yevgeny Prigozhin, who threatened Russia with arguably the worst domestic security crisis in 30 years — and pushed the ever-calm Putin into a corner. Suddenly, Russia’s longest-serving leader since Joseph Stalin was now faced with a list of bad options. For now, the danger seems to be over. Prigozhin appears to be turning his forces around and marching them back to their posts. We don’t yet know what, if any, concessions Prigozhin received for standing down. There are rumors that staffing changes at the top of the Russian Defense Ministry may have been made in exchange for Wagner pulling back, but this is unconfirmed. We also don’t know how this series of events will affect an already chaotic Russian military situation at the front.
This piece was originally published in MSNBC on June 24, 2023. Read more HERE.