Putin Faces Historic Threat to Absolute Grip on Power in Russia

Vladimir Putin managed to avert an attack on Moscow with an eleventh-hour deal with his mutinous mercenary commander. But the uprising has pierced his aura of total political control over Russia unlike any other event in his nearly quarter century in power.

Insiders in Moscow were stunned that he’d ignored repeated warnings that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was preparing to bring convoys of heavily armed fighters to the capital. Instead, the Russian leader allowed them to get so close authorities had to deploy tanks and troops in defense. That’s fueled once-unthinkable doubts about his legendary command of the country.