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Wagnerian travesty
Events surrounding last weekend’s rebellion led by mercenary boss Prigozhin are shrouded in obscurity – so what can we conclude from this latest episode in a war with potentially global ramifications, asks ANDREW MURRAY
Servicemen of the Wagner Group military company sit atop of a tank, as local civilians pose for a photo prior to their leave an area at the HQ of the Southern Military District in a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, Saturday, June 24, 2023

LENIN wrote that any cook should be able to run the country under communism. He never, however, suggested giving any catering contractor a private army.

That last is an innovation of the Putin regime in Russia, and one the president may well be regretting.

There is endless penny-a-dozen analysis — much of it conspiracist — of the mutiny in Russia at the weekend.

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