Concord press service/Handout via Reuters
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the longtime Vladimir Putin ally-turned-mercenary boss who staged a violent uprising last month, offered his subordinates a blunt explanation for his decision to turn on the Russian military: “I went crazy.”
That’s according to a new report by the investigative outlet The Project, which on Wednesday released what it called a “criminal and psychological portrait” of the Kremlin’s longtime enforcer.
Nearly three weeks after Prigozhin’s armed mutiny sent members of the Russian elite scrambling for their private jets, questions remain about whether it was an act staged by a lone madman with too much power—or a carefully planned revolt that had the backing of some within Putin’s inner circle. While U.S. intelligence has pointed to the latter, the Kremlin’s mouthpieces have settled on a version more convenient to Putin, whereby the president’s personal attack dog simply spiraled out of control. That version has allowed the Kremlin to sideline Prigozhin just as he was beginning to gain more popular support, even appearing in political posters in some regions that called for the Wagner boss to replace Putin.