Ex-spy chief: revolt leaves Putin significantly weaker

Former MI6 boss claims his legitimacy with Russians is being called into question

- Nicholas Cecil

VLADIMIR PUTIN’S authority has been “significantly weakened” by the Wagner Group rebellion, ex-MI6 chief Sir Alex Younger said today.

The former head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service said Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s “impetuous” decision to march his mercenary forces into the south western Russian city of Rostov and then towards Moscow had had little chance of succeeding.

But he added that the aborted revolt was still a blow to the Russian president.

Governments in the West and beyond were scrambling to assess the implications of the failed Wagner mutiny on Putin’s regime and his war in Ukraine.

The war has cost the lives of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, with heavy casualties among Ukraine’s military, and thousands of civilians killed in often indiscriminate shelling and air strikes.

Ukrainian military chiefs were reported to have used the chaos among Russia’s military leaders to step up their counter-offensive, with more ground seized around the eastern town of Bakhmut. Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, one of the main targets of Prigozhin's anger, visited troops involved in the military operation in Ukraine, state-run RIA news agency reported today without providing any details on when and where.

Putin had by this morning still to comment publicly since the de-escalation of one of the biggest challenges to his two-decade rule.