JRL NEWSWATCH: “Post-mutiny Moscow descends into factional murk” – The Economist
“Vladimir Putin’s authority has suffered a grave blow.”
“… Prigozhin[‘s] … mutiny has revealed the erosion of the state and the flimsiness of [] Putin’s support base. His dictatorship has so far relied less on mass purges than a consensus between power groups. His political opponents have ended up in jail (like [] Navalny) or exile. … [H]e has sowed rivalries between … loyalists, making himself their arbiter. To forestall a palace coup he prevented consolidation in the army and security services and created parallel structures such as Wagner. This worked in peacetime but faltered under the stress of war. [] Prigozhin’s mutiny was not a[] … factional squabble but a public split within [] Putin’s ‘pro-war’ constituency. On one side stands the conformist elite, trying to keep up a pretence of normal life. On the other is a group of angry military patriots, most prominently [] Prigozhin. Most worryingly for [] Putin, the army itself seems split. The public is watching ….”