The short-lived rebellion by Wagner Group leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin has forced a closer examination of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hold on power. Russia’s political system is “showing its fragilities, and the military power is cracking,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Monday at a summit of E.U. foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Questions remain about the whereabouts of Putin and Prigozhin — neither of whom has been seen in public since the episode came to a close — and about the future of Prigozhin’s Wagner Group mercenaries.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Now, following the short-lived rebellion, Prigozhin has been exiled to Belarus, a dictatorship even more isolated than Russia and often referred to as the North Korea of Europe, Mary Ilyushina reports.
On some levels, Prigozhin’s most brazen gambit clearly failed — his rebellion ended without the ouster of his archenemies, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the overall commander of the war in Ukraine. But he did not completely lose his private mercenary army, and he appeared to win some acclaim in Russia: After the news of his deal with Putin was announced, he got a celebrity send-off as he left the city of Rostov-on-Don, with many locals applauding and rushing to take selfies.
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