As NATO wrapped up a historic summit in Vilnius, the chaos from the fallout of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed insurrection in Russia continued apace.
Despite denouncing Prigozhin as a traitor, Vladimir Putin nevertheless met with the caterer-turned-warlord and other members of his Wagner Group just five days after the aborted rebellion.
Meanwhile, one top Russian general, Lt. Gen. Stanislav Rzhitsky, was assassinated while jogging in a park in Krasnodar and another, Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov, was fired after criticizing military leadership. And Prigozhin’s one-time ally, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, remains missing.
So what the hell is going on in Russia? And how should we assess the results of the NATO summit? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with former Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer, executive director of the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas, and veteran journalist Michael Weiss, a senior correspondent at Yahoo News and director of special investigations at the Free Russia Foundation. Enjoy…
SHOW NOTES
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The audio opening the second half of the podcast came from U.S. President Joe Biden’s speech at Vilnius University on July 12, 2023. You can watch the speech in its entirety here.
David Kramer’s article in the immediate aftermath of Prigozhin’s uprising, which was referenced in the podcast, can be accessed here. David Kramer’s other work can be accessed here.
A recent report co-authored by Michael Weiss and Pierre Vaux on the origins of Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine can be accessed here. Michael Weiss’ work at Yahoo! News can be accessed here.
An article in The Daily Beast by Julia Davis on the chaos in the Russian media in the aftermath of the insurrection, which was referenced in the podcast, can be accessed here.