LETTER: I understand why Prigozhin is a bit ticked off
Defence minister spends most of his time behind a desk, and the army chief looks like a drunk
The recent events in Russia have got the rumour mill running overtime (“Traitors, an exiled warlord and Herr Putin: how to stage-manage a mutiny”, June 27).
Generally, I find the simplest explanation the most plausible. Having seen hundreds of his fighters blown to pieces by Ukraine’s artillery and Russian incompetence, I can understand Yevgeny Prigozhin being a bit ticked off. Defence minister Sergei Shoigu spends most of his time behind a desk, and army chief Valery Gerasimov looks like a drunk. Why not ask for them to be replaced by someone who knows what they’re doing?
Prigozhin was welcomed with open arms wherever he went, and President Vladimir Putin clearly didn’t fancy the idea of him being feted in Moscow while he himself was hanging from a lamppost outside the Kremlin.
If Putin really wanted to push his macho image he would have charged down the M4 to meet Prigozhin head-on and hammer out a deal over coffee and vodka, while avoiding the polonium pudding.
As befits two world-class villains, the deal involving land and treasure would have been better closed without the help of Belarus’s Aleksandr Lukashenko. It remains to be seen if there can be honour among thieves.
Bernard Benson
Parklands
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