Russia did not face an imminent security threat to justify its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary outfit, said in a bombshell video posted on social media Friday. “The Armed Forces of Ukraine were not going to attack Russia with the NATO bloc,” Prigozhin explained in the half-hour tirade released by his press service. “The Russian Defense Ministry is deceiving the public and the president,” he added.
Interesting. I’m not sure how well Putin can play the “they deceived me card”, considering it may make him look weak. But punishing the “deceivers” may make him look strong. Who knows? I guess it depends on what the Russian people want to believe.
Well, at this point Putin knows is fucked. He won’t be able to sustain the war effort in Ukraine very long and the embargo on the country will have long lasting economic consequences. The rest of the World won’t let it go… unless he stops the war.
He is also under arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court. It’s his best chance of not spending the rest of his life in prison.
Is he fucked though? A lot of generals and other army higher ups got killed, a lot of oligarchs jumped out of the windows, almost everyone who posed any threat to Putin is now gone. At the same time those who showed support got suddenly rich. The amount of Russian billionaires has increased five fold during the first year of the war.
If anything, this war has helped Putin to clean up government and olygarchy, and ensure that his rule is unchallenged. Putin is not fucked, he’s golden.