An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Kyiv is confident that Vladimir Putin’s reign could soon end after an attempted mutiny led by Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Prigozhin led an armed rebellion in Moscow in the early hours of Saturday 24 June, but aborted a full mutiny of military services and the Kremlin. Putin labeled the Wagner Group leader a traitor and said that the incident was a “knife in the back of our people”.
The dramatic scenes in the Russian capital came as both Ukrainian and Russian troops continue to fight the war in Ukraine, with Zelensky’s troops only recently launching a spring counter-offensive.
Andriy Yermak, a close adviser of Zelensky, said that the drama on home turf for Putin has reinforced the feeling in Kyiv that Putin’s time in power could be coming to an end.
During a press briefing, Mr. Yermak said: “I think the countdown has started. What Ukraine has seen since 2014 has become evident for the entire world.”
“This [Russia] is a terrorist country whose leader is an inadequate person who has lost connection with reality. The world must conclude that it’s impossible to have any kind of serious relationship with that country.”
The Russian president’s 20-year grip on power has been questioned after the major incident, with cracks in his influence boiling to the surface.
Prigozhin is said to have become frustrated with the decisions taken by the Russian military in the war with Ukraine and increasingly irked by plans to fully integrate the paramilitary mercenary Wagner Group into the Russian defense forces.
Mr. Yermak’s words echo those of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who told NBC News the day after the rebellion: “We’ve seen more cracks emerge in the Russian facade. It is too soon to tell exactly where they go, and when they get there.
“But certainly, we have all sorts of new questions that Putin is going to have to address in the weeks and months ahead.”
The Kremlin has downplayed any negative impact the attempted rebellion has had on Putin’s position. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that the “events have shown how consolidated society is around the president”, praising his role in finding a resolution.
When asked if Putin’s grip on power had been weakened by the incident, Mr. Peskov said: “We do not agree. There is now a lot of ultra-emotional hysteria among specialists, pseudo-specialists, political scientists, and pseudo-politicians. It is also rippling through some hysterical new media, on the Internet, and so on. It has nothing to do with reality.”
