MOSCOW: As one of the world’s most brutal mercenary forces marched on Moscow, some among Russia’s elite trembled in fear that the world’s biggest nuclear power was teetering on the brink of what President Vladimir Putin said could have been a civil war.
With Putin facing the biggest public challenge of his 23 years as paramount leader, some private jets sped out of Moscow, according to flight tracking data and one source with knowledge of the matter.
One fear was that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group, if he entered Moscow, would try to take over the economy, triggering yet another redistribution of ownership in Russia, the world’s biggest supplier of natural resources.
When Prigozhin’s men turned back just over 200km from Moscow, a different fear set in: That Putin, furious in his humiliation, would tighten the screws even further and take revenge against those considered not sufficiently loyal.
“Everyone shat themselves badly,” said one source with knowledge of the thinking at the top levels of the Russian business and political elites, which often overlap.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity due to the danger of speaking publicly in contemporary Russia.
“Anyone with anything to lose was extremely tense.”
Another senior source in Moscow, who requested anonymity, said fear triumphed in the tumultuous hours of Saturday (Jun 24) and that many rushed to make plans to get their families out of Moscow.
That source said that it was clear that Putin’s authority had been damaged but that it was far too early to make any sweeping conclusions from events which the source said did not appear to make full sense.
“The speed and gravity of whatever this was has completely shocked everyone, including in the Kremlin,” the source said.
In interviews with Reuters, about a dozen members of the Russian elite related their jitters as the mutiny unfolded, the biggest internal challenge to the Russian state since the 1991 coup bid against Mikhail Gorbachev as the Soviet Union crumbled.
Their trepidation and reactions give an insight into the depths of the fissures inside Putin’s Russia after 16 months of war in Ukraine that shows no sign of ending any time soon.
“A new reality has dawned in Russia,” a third source told Reuters when asked what had happened, adding that the full consequences of the failed mutiny may not yet have played out.
