In the service of the Kremlin, Prigozhin proved his mettle. Probably more to the point, he had found out some days earlier that the Russian Defence Ministry was keen to rein in his troops, placing them under contractual obligations. Prigozhin, for all his aspirations, has a gangster’s nose for a bargain, poor or otherwise. Those who had not participated would be duly assimilated into the Russian defence architecture in signing contracts with the Defence Ministry. Ultimately, in Putin’s Russia, the political is never divorceable from the personal.

Source: The Guardian June 27, 2023 09:24 UTC