Daily archives: August 23, 2023


The cost of failure, and mutiny, in Russia

In a not at all surprising development, Yevgeny Prighozin- leader of the Wagner mercenary group- is reported to have died in a plane crash. This is what happens when you try to overthrow Putin, I guess.

There’s some speculation that the crash is staged, and Prigozhin isn’t one of the bodies recovered at the scene. Presumably, in this scenario, he put one of his doubles on the jet, and is now planning to lay low somewhere safe. It’s straight from spy fiction, but wouldn’t be a huge twist after the black farce of everything Wagner has been involved in.

I think he’s really dead. But if he isn’t, I don’t think he could stay quiet for very long, and would just put himself back in the crosshairs rather than living in luxurious anonymity.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/23/yevgeny-prigozhin-on-private-jet-that-crashed-near-moscow-russia-wagner