A former US ambassador to Russia on Tuesday said we are witnessing “the final saga” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In an interview with CNN, Jon Huntsman, who served in the post for two years during the Trump administration, said the armed mutiny launched by Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Friday embarrassed the Russian leader.
“Putin has been humiliated,” Huntsman said. “That’s not happened many times in his career. So we’re not going to know in the days and weeks and even the months ahead what the likely outcome for Vladimir Putin will be.”
“He still controls the state. He controls the security apparatus. He’s got more bombs and guns than anybody else. But I’m here to tell you I think we’re witnessing the final saga of Vladimir Putin,” he added.
The former Utah GOP governor added that the deal the Kremlin struck with Prigozhin, brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, exposed the Russian system’s hypocrisy.
While many Russians are behind bars for minor offences, Prigozhin, who “probably represented the greatest existential threat to Putin and the Russian state,” is allowed to go free, explained Huntsman, who ran for president in the 2012 election.
The uprising, which lasted less than 24 hours, saw Prigozhin’s forces taking control of the Russian military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don. His mercenaries later advanced toward Moscow before pulling back after the Kremlin agreed to send Prigozhin to Belarus without charges for him and his soldiers.
Russian authorities confirmed they will not pursue mutiny charges against Prigozhin and his forces, according to The Associated Press.
The next challenge for the US will be to prepare for a post-Putin Russia, when it’s extremely hard to tell who could come next, Huntsman said.
“There’s no bench in politics in Russia,” he added.