Experts: Vladimir Putin's worst day in life is over

Vladimir Putin. Gavriil Grigorov / AP  

 

Experts: Vladimir Putin's worst day in life is over  

 

The big winner after today's dramatic developments in Russia is Ukraine. This is what James Nixey, head of the Russia program at the Chatham House think tank, told the BBC.  

 

He believes that Ukraine will use the instability in the country to their advantage and that they will fire on the fragile political situation that President Vladimir Putin is in. 

 

He also calls Saturday "Putin's worst day as a leader". Sam Green, director of the Center for European Policy Analysis, is on the same track. On Twitter, he writes that Saturday is likely just the beginning of a difficult time for the Russian leader.  

 

"I am not saying that Prigozhin will do something similar. But I have a strong feeling that Putin's problems have only just begun," he writes. Someone who is also meeting at an uncertain time is the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.  

 

He is to be moved to Belarus and it is still unclear what will happen to his paramilitary group which has played a central role in the invasion of Ukraine. Experts state for DN that Prigozhin has made himself an enemy of the Kremlin.  

 

- In the end, few oppositionists survive, they end up being shot, says lieutenant colonel Johan Huovinen. 

 

Vladimir Putin. Archive image. Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP  

 

The Russian invasion|The response of the outside world  

Analysis: Vladimir Putin's days in the Kremlin are numbered  

 

Vladimir Putin has reached the end of the road and his days as leader of Russia are numbered. That's what James Kilner writes in an analysis in the Daily Telegraph after the Wagner group's rebellion on Saturday. 

 

"Russians want a tough leader. Any sign of weakness can be devastating.”  

 

The site Foreign Policy describes Saturday's drama as Putin's house of cards collapsing. It is now clear that the image of a strong leader in control is a pipe dream and that the president has lost his grip on his "Frankenstein's monster", the Wagner Group.  

 

If Putin loses the loyalty of the military and the oligarchs, a vacuum will emerge with potentially very serious consequences, they continue.  

 

"One of the risks of a Russian civil war is the unmentionable danger of 'nuclear weapons on the loose'."  

Russia historian Stephen Kotkin says he was surprised by Putin's weak handling of the conflict between Wagner and the Russian military leadership. He had expected Putin to recognize the danger, but is now warning against writing the president off. 

 

- I overestimated him. However, I would not make the opposite mistake and underestimate him after this, he says in an interview with Foreign Affairs.