Russian President Vladimir Putin has faced down the biggest threat his regime has confronted in more than two decades in power. For now. As details about the dramatic mutiny led by Yevgeny Prigozhin — the ex-con who founded the PMC Wagner paramilitary group, which has been fighting in Ukraine — have emerged, it’s become clear that Putin narrowly avoided disaster.
On Wednesday, news media reported that Prigozhin had intended to kidnap two top Russian officials — Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s general staff — when the two visited a Russian region neighboring Ukraine. Western officials say the plot likely had a good chance of working until details leaked to Russia’s Federal Security Service and Prigozhin marched toward Moscow instead.
Two elements of the failed plot stand out.
