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On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin was presiding over a televised World War II commemoration celebration on a gloomy stage that was spectacularly lighted in red, just as word of the probable death of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin came.
Prigozhin’s mutiny in June put Putin’s own hold on power—something that was far more delicate—in jeopardy. The Kremlin seems to be saying that Prigozhin’s jet accident on Wednesday proves that no amount of success or effectiveness can save someone from punishment for betraying Putin’s loyalty.
The Kremlin looked to be doing nothing to convince Russians that the death of Prigozhin had not been authorized, according to Vinogradov, who added that “this is a rather harsh precedent.” After all, it would send a terrible message of Putin’s loss of control if members of the ruling elite came to the conclusion that one of the most important figures in the Putin system had been slain against the Kremlin’s wishes.
The insinuation made by foreign authorities that the Kremlin was behind Prigozhin’s death was a “absolute lie,” according to Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, on Friday.
In an interview given on Thursday in Moscow, Venediktov said that Prigozhin’s seeming demise had increased Putin’s authority in the Russian political system following the upheaval of the uprising. Venediktov continued, “Putin has shown his elite that any betrayal will be discovered out.
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Russia’s Political Landscape
Officials in the United States are getting more and more confident that Putin ordered the assassination and that Prigozhin was killed in the crash on Wednesday. Yet, whether Putin personally authorized the attack may not matter in terms of the power dynamics inside Russia’s governing class; what counts is that Prigozhin perished violently after Putin publicly denounced him.
Putin officially addressed the plane crash on Thursday, one day after it occurred. A “talented man” with a “complicated fate.” as he described Prigozhin. For the first time, Putin acknowledged that he had personally given Prigozhin instructions to carry out tasks on his behalf, and he revealed that their interactions date from the early 1990s.
For the Kremlin, Prigozhin’s demise poses concerns as well. Wagner was regarded in Ukraine as one of Russia’s most vicious and effective combat groups, exacting heavy sacrifices and suffering significant losses during the protracted conflict over the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
The Kremlin was most likely behind the plane crash, according to Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Putin who is now a political consultant based in Israel. He also claimed that the president’s risky choice to kill Prigozhin in order to send a message of deterrence revealed his fears of losing control.
“As long as there is Putin, there is Russia,” was how Vyacheslav Volodin, the head of Russia’s lower house of parliament, summed up this ideology earlier this year.
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Source: Yahoo!
