The sudden and startling death of one of Vladimir Putin’s opponents is hardly a new trope. In the case of Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of a failed rebellion against the Russian president in June – who died in a suspicious-looking plane crash last Wednesday, along with nine others – the main question was: what took Putin so long? Andrew Roth explores what the legacy of the Wagner warlord might be for Russia – which may well hinge on Putin himself and how the war in Ukraine turns out.
Pjotr Sauer looks at the array of methods used to dispose of Putin’s political enemies in the past, while Dino Mahtani asks what will happen to Wagner group’s clandestine operations in Africa now its enigmatic boss is no longer in the picture.
