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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
(noun) The attempt by Putin’s former lieutenant to vanquish his old boss
The accepted wisdom in the first year of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was that, so tight was the Russian president’s grip on power, no member of the country’s elite would dare challenge him. That held until June this year, when catering magnate turned brutal mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin staged the biggest insurrection of the Putin era.
Over the first half of the year, Prigozhin and his Wagner fighters had become increasingly notorious for their bloody war of attrition to seize the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut. But on June 23, he posted a lengthy rant on social media, claiming that the official justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was lies, and that the minister of defence, Sergei Shoigu, had intentionally deceived Putin.
Then, in a surreal 24 hours, the Wagner boss marched his men into the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, and seized control of its military headquarters. As his men began their march on Moscow, the rest of the world watched in shock as they shot down Russian Air Force aircraft and the Kremlin scrambled to set up defensive lines outside the capital.
But just as it seemed that Prigozhin’s men were on course for a historic showdown at Moscow’s gates, he announced that he was pulling back from the brink.
Prigozhin was banished to Belarus and many wondered what punishment was in store for him. On August 23, a private aircraft carrying him and nine others crashed on a flight between Moscow and St Petersburg, killing them all.
As speculation raged that Putin had finally decided to get rid of the man who once served his suppers, the president gave a blunt eulogy, describing Prigozhin as someone who had “made some serious mistakes in life, but also achieved necessary results”.
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