A former Russian diplomat says the attempted Wagner mutiny is ‘just another step’ toward Putin’s eventual ouster

• Boris Bondarev told Newsweek he believes the Wagner mutiny will hasten Putin’s ouster.
• “His war was from the very beginning doomed. This mutiny is just another step,” Bondarev said.
• Bondarev said there has been growing “disappointment and anger” among Russia’s elite over the war.

A former Russian diplomat said the Wagner Group’s attempted rebellion over the weekend could accelerate Putin’s eventual ouster.

“The beginning of the end of Putin started when he invaded Ukraine. His war was from the very beginning doomed,” Boris Bondarev told Newsweek on Tuesday. “This mutiny is just another step.”

Bondarev previously served as Russia’s representative to the UN mission in Geneva. He quit his post in May 2022 after criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Bondarev currently lives in Switzerland with his family, where he has received political asylum, per The Moscow Times. The former diplomat has since become a vocal critic of Putin’s government and now writes about his experience for publications such as The Economist and Foreign Affairs.

Bondarev said the war has been a source of frustration among Russia’s elite, and that the mutiny reinforces their disillusionment about Putin’s leadership.

“Slowly the disappointment and anger and irritation among the elite has been growing, but this Prigozhin thing, I think, has given great impetus to this and people start understanding and realizing in a more clear way that the situation is very wrong, it is very unhealthy,” Bondarev told Newsweek.

“So the situation will lead eventually to the great understanding that Putin must go,” he continued. 

The Wagner Group’s mutiny erupted after a long-running feud between its chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the Russian military leadership. In the lead-up to the attempted mutiny, the mercenary group leader had been growing increasingly critical of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Prigozhin called off the rebellion on the same day after striking a deal with the Kremlin. As part of the agreement, Prigozhin has been exiled to Belarus in exchange for not being prosecuted for the rebellion.

Bondarev’s remarks come among reports of infighting within the Russian military leadership. 

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that a senior Russian general was aware of Prigozhin’s mutiny plans, citing unnamed US officials who were briefed on the matter. The Russian Embassy did not respond to The Times’ request for comment.

The officials told The Times that “other Russian generals may also have supported Mr. Prigozhin’s attempt to change the leadership of the Defense Ministry by force.”

A representative for Russia’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.