The researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations, Diana Soller, considers that the outcome of the Wagner group’s rebellion against Moscow this Saturday is “quite unexpected” and says she has doubts about whether it will, in fact, be a solution to the episode.
“My question here is whether this is really a denouement. Apparently yes, now something very significant has happened here in Russia and in the legitimacy of Vladimir Putin, as the all-powerful lord of Russia, ”he noted in the special. issue that TSF dedicated this Saturday to the crisis in Russia.
For Soller, the “very serious accusations of treason” exchanged between Vladimir Putin and the leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the staging “at least of a coup” raise doubts about whether the return to “normality “. There is also the question of whether “there will be a profound change in Russian leadership issues.”
“This is really such a serious situation that such a simple outcome is something that surely has to make us at least a little suspicious,” he assesses.
Even so, since it is already certain that Vladimir Putin’s leadership “comes out very fragile” due to the friction with Prigozhin, it remains to be seen “how Russia will be able to rebuild itself and maintain itself in a war after a situation like this.” .
The head of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has suspended the rebellion movements in Russia against the military command, less than 24 hours after having occupied Rostov, a key city in the south of the country for the war in Ukraine.
At the end of the day, when Wagner’s forces were reported advancing to some 200 kilometers from Moscow, Prigozhin announced that he had negotiated an agreement with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Earlier, the head of the paramilitary group accused the Russian army of attacking his mercenary camps, causing “a very high number of casualties,” accusations that expose deep tensions within Moscow’s forces over the offensive in Ukraine.
The Russian president called the group’s action a rebellion, said it was a “mortal threat” to the Russian state and treason, assuring that he would not allow a “civil war”.
Source: TSF
