Prigozhin makes his move — now the pit or the palace awaits

‘There are decades in which nothing happens, and weeks in which decades happen.’ Vladimir Lenin

Yevgeny Prigozhin is either a master strategist and political genius, or a loose cannon with his own private army, suffering from an acute case of megalomania and destined for death. History is about to decide which.

In taking a leap into the mists of fate with his decision to point his Wagner forces north in the direction of Moscow, Prigozhin has thrown down the kind of gauntlet to the Kremlin that will either see Putin’s solidified in his power or swept aside like a latter day Tsar Nicholas II — the Russian leader who, in wartime, made the fatal error of misunderstanding his own people and their willingness to continue see their menfolk returning to them in coffins.

After months of regularly haranguing the Russian military high command in videos from the frontlines in the Donbass, the writing was on the wall for Prigozhin when that same high command, with Putin’s endorsement, announced a few weeks ago that from July 1st all Wagner troops would come under direct military control, thus removing the private military chief’s power base.

Most recently, the Wagner chief released a video in which he refuted Putin’s reasoning for embarking on the conflict in Ukraine, amounting…