When Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash near Moscow last month, Russian propagandists were quick to seek a foreign culprit. But external observers soon agreed that his death was revenge by the Kremlin for his attempted insurgency in June. It was also a signal to the Russian elites: being loyal means abstaining from defying Vladimir Putin. Discontent can no longer be hidden beneath patriotism.
Contrary to what Russia’s military commanders had initially hoped, Kyiv did not fall after three days or even a month. The war against Ukraine has dragged on, and Russian society is not hugely enthusiastic about it, as shown by the public’s reaction to partial mobilisation in autumn 2022.
Now the Russian authorities face a dilemma. Should they choose full mobilisation, sending more and more Russian soldiers to the front and switching the entire economy to support the war effort? Or should they maintain the illusion that life can be peaceful ‘back home’?
