There's been a lot of ink spilled on the impact of Prigozhin's mutiny on Russia, on the war, on Putin and what it says about how things are really going. I've posted some of the more interesting ones I've read below, or you can listen to the propagandists who are sure to weigh in saying that these people are all wrong and that really you just need to take Putin's word for it that everything is a-ok.
You have to be phenomenally deluded to think that this war has made Russia stronger or that the mutiny has left Russia in a better position than it started in. Russia's already shaky relationships with Beijing and others have only become weaker and Putin's obvious lack of command is creating the sort of instability that causes "partners" to take notice.
Here's an
article from Tim Snyder who I've mentioned before - a well regarded Russia and Ukraine scholar. There is a lot more here, but this is just a taste:
Quote:
So long as Putin is in power, this is what he will do. He will threaten and hope that those threats will change the behaviour of his enemies. When that fails, he will change the story. His regime rests on propaganda, and in the end the spectacle generated by the military is there to serve the propaganda. Even when that spectacle is as humiliating as can be possibly be imagined, as it was on Saturday when Russian rebels marched on Moscow and Putin fled, his response will be to try to change the subject.
It is worth emphasizing that on Saturday the threat to him personally and to his regime was real. Both the risk and the humiliation were incomparably greater than anything that could happen in Ukraine. Compared to power in Russia, land in Ukraine is unimportant. After what we have just seen, no one should be arguing that Putin might be backed into a corner in Ukraine and take some terrible decision. He cannot be backed into a corner in Ukraine. He can only be backed into a corner in Russia. And now we know what
he does when that happens: record a speech and run away.
Here's former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul's take on "Putin the Weak." He should be reviled as a furdie, but the propagandists will point out that he's mean to Putin and an advocate for democracy who shouldn't be trusted. Meanwhile they will continue to completely ignore any facts that they didn't receive through their official and unofficial propaganda channels (whether by discord or twitter troll).
Not that the scale of Russian corruption has ever truly been in doubt, but we continue to see credible reporting of it increase.
Here are just a few recent threads:
