Russia’s embattled defence minister was in the hot seat long before Yevgeny Prigozhin sent his Wagner mercenaries racing to Moscow on a stated mission to oust him. The latter’s failure shows President Vladimir Putin is unwilling to sacrifice his long-time confidant – at least for now.
Wagner’s aborted weekend rebellion wound up without attaining its stated goal: the removal of Prigozhin’s archenemy Sergei Shoigu, the seemingly untouchable defence minister who has overseen Russia’s grindingly slow invasion of Ukraine.
