Insurrection in Russia: Putin (and the West) taken by surprise

The Wagner armed group’s rebellion against Russian authority has taken everyone by surprise, starting with the man targeted by this veritable insurrection, Vladimir Putin.

But it’s not just the Russian president and his ministers who have been taken by surprise by the capabilities and intentions of Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin. It seems that the West, which had been tracking Russia’s internal power struggles “for months”, reports CNN, was too.

So it’s a surreal series of events that the whole world has been witnessing for less than 24 hours, as the first reports of a rebellion, which the Russian authorities describe as “treason” and even a real “coup d’état”, were transmitted and confirmed via social networks and traditional media.

While it’s difficult to predict the outcome of this revolt on the part of Warner and Prigozhin, who claim to have seized two strategic points in Russia, experts agree that we could be witnessing Vladimir Putin’s last moments as President of Russia.