Category: Yevgeny Prigozhin

The kitchens of the Tsar

On By Marc NadeauIn Anna Arutunyan, Downfall, Leadership, Mark Galeotti, Penguin Random House, Politics, Russia, Sergei Shoigu, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Wagner Group, Yevgeny PrigozhinLeave a comment

On June 24, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin – the former convict-turned-entrepreneur-turned-warlord, shook the pillars of the Kremlin. The eyes of the world were riveted on the screens while Wagner mercenaries drove to Moscow. The leader had had enough of Russia’s military leadership that was, in his opinion, responsible for the state of things in Ukraine. Could it be the end of the régime? Few could predict what would happen. At the end of the day, Vladimir Putin prevailed, but the mutiny revealed the character of a man who thought bigger of himself than he could deliver.

In the recent book Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin and the new fight for the future of Russia (Ebury Press) they co-wrote, journalist Anna Arutunyan and renowned Russia observer Mark Galeotti explain why and how Prigozhin – the servant who forgot his place – embarked on his death knell on what could be described as his highway to hell.

Since Prigozhin intertwined his destiny with Vladimir Putin’s reign, his biography can’t be dissociated from the nature and the functioning of the régime he eagerly served for his good fortune. Comparing the Kremlin to a medieval court where adhocracy prevails, the authors explain that one’s influence and fate are related to its importance to the Tsar.

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Prigozhin’s failed putsch was essentially a sideshow

On By Marc NadeauIn Henry Holt, History, Joseph Stalin, Leadership, Philip Short, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny PrigozhinLeave a comment
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on June 26, 2023 (Sputnik / Reuters)

I’m now at the age where I can say that I have observed, from afar, two coups initiated against a Russian ruler. The first one was plotted against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991. The second one happened just a few days ago. I was glued to my Twitter account and CNN for most of last weekend, trying to keep abreast of developments between Rostov-on-Don and Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin being at the center of the events unfolding in these crucial hours, I believed it would be pertinent to reach out to the author of the best biography written about him to seek some insights. Philip Short, author of the seminal Putin (Holt), a book on which he worked for 8 years. Mr. Short generously agreed to answer a few questions, despite being buried under requests.

Here is the content of our discussion.

_________

Mr. Short, thank you very much for the generosity of your time.

I have a feeling that every time Vladimir Putin is referred to in the Western media, the analysis goes in the direction of his downfall – either by a coup, cancer or slipping on a banana peel. Would you tend to agree that this is wishful thinking disguised as analysis?

President Vladimir Putin’s biographer Philip Short (Macmillan)

I think we must recognize that we are in the middle of an information war that’s running parallel to the war on the ground in Ukraine. So, whether it’s wishful thinking or spin is arguable. Very often there are elements of both – added to which, western (and Russian) pundits have been pontificating very little hard information to go on, so there has been a lot of thumb-sucking of the ‘Putin’s finished’, ‘The end is nigh’, ‘Civil war beckons’, variety.

No one knows even exactly what Prigozhin was promised when he agreed to call off his mutiny. But certainly, the consensus in the Western media that Putin is severely weakened needs to be treated with skepticism. It’s just as plausible to make a case that his grip has in fact been strengthened because he found a way out which avoided the worst-case scenario of bloody fighting, and, to the elite, that is a signal that, even if he misjudged the situation early on, he hasn’t lost his touch, so ‘better to stick with the devil you know’.

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