everyone seems to be saying that putin was made much weaker by prigozhin's coup attempt

[unblock]

and sure, having an armed force make a long march straight towards moscow isn't a good look.

that said, putin stopped it before it got to moscow and so far doesn't seem to have given up much, if anything, and the negotiations didn't seem to take much time at all.

i wonder if the "deal" was that prigozhin calls it off, exiles himself to belarus, and putin lets his family live. someone like putin doesn't give power to anyone he doesn't have leverage over, so maybe all he did was remind him of that fact and prigozhin gave up.

a coup attempt that bloodies the leader's nose weakens that leader. but a coup attempt that stops before it really even begins normally only strengthens the leader.

anyway, it provides an excuse for putin to clean house and/or pause on ukraine or to make other changes. we'll see....


i'm just glad this all has to be good news for ukraine.

[calimary]

1. That makes sense.

He’s still a very calculating adversary.

[Frasier Balzov]

2. It did look like the insurrectionists have a certain level of popular support.

Including from elements within the Russian military.

That has to be VERY concerning to Putin.

[Lovie777]

3. He's in Belarus....................

not good,

[Clash City Rocker]

4. He stopped it by making a deal

Deals involve compromises…one must give something up to make a deal. Under the right-wing authoritarian mindset that has made Putin popular with Russians, strength is key. If he had killed the people marching on Moscow, it would have made him look strong. Instead, he made a compromise, and the opposition was allowed to leave without being imprisoned or killed. So by those standards, he looked weak.