Putin still faces ‘dangerous idea’ despite Prigozhin’s ‘plane crash death’

Vladimir Putin still faces long-term question marks over his grip on power despite the reported death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, an expert on Russian security has said. Emily Ferris, of the Royal United Services Institute, views the "shocking challenge" of Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny as having reverberations that are yet to fully play out. The Research Fellow spoke after the Wagner Group boss was said by multiple unofficial sources to have died on a plane that crashed north of Moscow last night. ... "Ultimately, this is not likely to particularly change Putin’s grip on power," she said. "The effects of the rebellion are more likely to be long-term rather than immediate – Putin at the time was able to counter the threat with minimal bloodshed, avoiding a civil war or pitting Wagner against the armed forces or worse, civilians. While the very nature of the rebellion was a shocking challenge to Putin, what it may have done is suggest to the political elite that a future without Putin could be considered, and this is a dangerous idea that Putin would be keen to quash. The effects of this have not yet been borne out."