If I’m getting the time difference right, it seemed like this whole thing began mid-day Friday. Suddenly, a Russian paramilitary force of recently imprisoned mercenaries called the Wagner Group attacked and took over Rostov-on-Don, Russia. They were met with little resistance in Rostov, nor did they meet much resistance as thousands of Wagner mercenaries hauled ass for hundreds of miles, hellbent on “taking” Moscow before the weekend was over. Yevgeny Prigozhin in “in charge” of Wagner. Prigozhin went from hot-dog-stand owner to owner of a catering company to one of Putin’s close allies and the leader of a massive and dangerous mercenary force. Prigozhin and Putin were so close that Putin basically allowed Prigozhin to form Wagner. When Putin made the catastrophic error of invading Ukraine, Russia’s military couldn’t handle the invasion or the war, so Putin hired Wagner to fight the Ukrainians. Apparently, Prigozhin has been deeply unhappy with the losses his forces have suffered in Ukraine, and originally, he claimed that this massive coup attempt was merely trying to remove Russia’s military leadership, not overthrow the entire government. Well, this whole coup ended on Saturday night because finally Belarus’s President Aleksandr Lukashenko got in touch with Prigozhin:

The Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin announced that his troops marching toward Moscow would turn around, shortly after the leader of Belarus said he was in talks with Mr. Prigozhin on a deal to “de-escalate tensions.”

The negotiations between Mr. Prigozhin and President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus opened the possibility that the rapidly evolving security crisis embroiling the Russian government could be resolved without armed fighting. But Mr. Prigozhin did not immediately say whether his forces were leaving the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where he has seized critical military and civilian buildings.

In a brief address on Saturday morning, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called the mutiny an act of treason by people who were delivering “a stab in the back of our country and our people.” Mr. Prigozhin, after lashing out on Friday at the Russian military over its handling of the war in Ukraine, took control of Rostov in the early morning and began moving his armed military convoys toward the Russian capital. Mr. Putin, in turn, scrambled security forces in southwestern Russia and Moscow.

The situation shifted quickly late Saturday when Mr. Lukashenko’s office, in a statement, said that Mr. Prigozhin had agreed to the Belarusian leader’s proposal “to stop the movement of armed persons of the Wagner company.” In an audio statement posted to Telegram shortly afterward, Mr. Prigozhin said he was “turning around” to avoid Russian bloodshed and “leaving in the opposite direction to field camps in accordance with the plan.”

[From The NY Times]

Over the course of a 36-hour period, Vladimir Putin had to step out and make a public address and he kept it short. That’s interesting because anti-Russian disinformation bots were definitely trying to convince everyone that Putin, his oligarchs and senior military officials were running like rats from a sinking ship, but it looks like the senior command did stay put in Moscow. It’s also interesting to see how little military and civilian resistance Prigozhin encountered as Wagner raced through the country to get to Moscow. Russian authorities said that Prigozhin was committing treason and armed rebellion. Prigozhin said he was merely a patriot. LOL.

It is good news for Ukraine, more than fifteen months after Russia’s invasion. Putin is deeply unpopular, the Russian military is in chaos, the Russian mercenaries are having supply chain issues and Putin needed his Belarusian buddy to bail him out. Insane.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.