Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, made the announcement minutes after the leader of Belarus announced successful talks with the Wagner boss.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, made the announcement minutes after the leader of Belarus announced successful talks with the Wagner boss.
I’ve seen it suggested elsewhere that this might be a deal struck with Putin through Lukashenko so as not to make it seem like he is negotiating and capitulating with Prigozhin like they are on the same level. Will any security guarantee he gets be worth a damn, considering Putin’s regime lies and goes back on its word constantly?
I’ve seen it suggested that this was staged by Putin to dissuade more earnest coup attempts. However that theory relied on Putin looking like a strong-man at the resolution of this, which doesn’t seem to be the case.
Yeah I highly doubt it, any staged coup needs to end with the death of at least one of the coup leaders to help Putin’s image.
Especially doesn’t look strong when his plane took off in the middle of this whole thing for Valdai, where he has a residence.