Not everything is clear yet, but I think it’s possible to at least venture an initial read of what happened over the weekend in Russia.
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s famed mercenary force, PMC Wagner Group, was set to be liquidated by July and incorporated into the regular armed forces of the Russian state. Prigozhin’s march to Rostov and toward Moscow was a protest of this action. He had support from his men to do this because Wagner Group has been an effective fighting force, and many of his men do not want to be led by Ministry of Defense commanders. Prigozhin has argued that those commanders waste good soldiers in “meat grinder” battlefield tactics.
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