Commentary There’s no doubt that the brief, but significant armed mutiny by Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin damaged Vladimir Putin. Indeed the Moscow Times described Putin as being “seen as weakened.” Russia Today asked the question, “Was it a one-off or an ominous sign?” And the Russia Post headline identified “The Prigozhin Mutiny as a…

Russia will emerge from the turmoil caused by last week’s aborted mutiny “stronger,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. “Russia has always emerged stronger from difficulties,” Moscow’s top diplomat said at a June 30 online press briefing.  “This will be the case this time,” he added. “We already feel that this has begun.” On…

Commentary A suspect deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and mercenary commander Yevgeny Prigozhin ended the short-lived but stunning Wagner Revolt. Revolt it was. The Wagner force took Rostov, a major city and the site of the Russian Army’s headquarters for the Ukraine War. A Wagner flying column with tanks and mechanized infantry rolled toward…

Commentary The nuclear posture of Russia, Eastern Europe, and the world is becoming less stable by the day. For starters, Russia has confirmed that it has moved tactical nuclear weapons into neighboring Belarus. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the weapons would be used only if the Russian state or territory were threatened. That criterion…

The Kremlin has declined to comment on the current whereabouts of Sergey Surovikin, a top Russian general who has been absent from public view since last week’s aborted mutiny by the leader of Russia’s Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin. “I recommend that you ask the Defense Ministry,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on June 29…

Commentary On June 24, mercenaries from the Wagner Group, the Kremlin’s private military company, abandoned the war in Ukraine and marched into Lipetsk, 225 miles south of Moscow, in an apparent insurrection. “This is not a military coup, but a march of justice,” declared the defiant commander of the Wagner mercenary army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, as he…

Belarus—which played a critical role in ending last week’s aborted mutiny against the Kremlin by the leader of Russia’s Wagner Group—has returned to the spotlight.   A key Russian ally, the country made headlines earlier this year when Moscow unveiled plans to station tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil.  On June 27, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko…

The dramatic—if short-lived—armed mutiny led by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin  has prompted a storm of speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power is slipping. “We’ve seen more cracks emerge in the Russian facade,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in televised remarks on June 25. “Revolt Raises Searing Questions,” The New…

The United States and its allies had nothing to do with the mutiny undertaken by Yevgeny Prigozhin and the private Russian army known as the Wagner Group that occurred in Russia on June 23 and June 24, according to U.S. President Joe Biden. The president commented on the short-lived insurrection during White House remarks on…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has broken his silence for the first time since the Wagner mutiny ended in an uncertain truce on Saturday, with the Russian leader pledging in a televised address that the leaders of the Wagner rebellion would be brought to justice. Putin’s remarks on Monday were his first since a fiery speech…