Vladimir Putin’s cosmetology/ghost train has been stealing plenty of focus in Russia-focused headlines. However, there’s also the curious matter of the military uprising (led by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin) that swallowed up a weekend and then disappeared into the ether like it ain’t no thing. Uncharacteristically, Prigozhin was (supposedly) allowed to live in exile after disrespecting Putin in the ultimate way. That endgame wouldn’t make sense when Putin foes fall out of skyscrapers (and meet equally absurd deaths) on the regular.
Twists continue to emerge, and this includes a take from a retired U.S. general who points out how little he believes recent accounts that Putin and Prigozhin actually held a meeting after the failed uprising (which is also rumored to have been in search of backpack-sized nukes from the Cold War era). Robert Adams spoke with ABC to express his doubts that Prigozhin is even still alive, and here’s what he said about the claimed meeting:
“Well, first, I’d be surprised if we actually see proof of life that Putin met with Prigozhin, and I think it’s highly staged. And my personal assessment is that I doubt we’ll see Prigozhin ever again publicly. I think he’ll either be put in hiding or sent to prison or dealt with some other way, but I doubt we’ll ever see him again.”
One wonders how correct he is and if anyone should believe other reports about Prigozhin supposedly coming out to admit that he “went crazy” could be the Russian propaganda machine already at work. It’s a bit rusty, that machine, because it failed to cover up Putin being heckled in Ukraine, but there’s more.
A new Financial Times piece floats the possibility that Putin isn’t calling the shots anymore, and people might not be really quaking in their boots over him. Rather, the opposite Russian elites might now act as a “Collective Putin” while the real one skunks away out of fear and shame. Hmm:
The Kremlin’s response to the recent mutiny of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary boss, forces us to reconsider this picture. It was not Putin but the “collective Putin” (a mystical figure including, among others, Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus) that decided the outcome of the crisis. Putin the individual was irate and humiliated by Wagner’s betrayal and went on TV threatening “to be harsh”. But the “collective Putin” concluded that it would be wiser to negotiate with the rebels and find an exit strategy.
All of it is food for thought, and it’s rather amusing to think of a “Collective Putin” being kind of like “We’re All Negan,” only much more pathetic for Putin. However, there’s nothing truly worth laughing at when it comes to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, other than the fact that he’s obsessing over cabbage for some reason.
(Via ABC News & Financial Times)