The extraordinary sight of the Wagner group chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, ordering his private troops across the border from Ukraine – first into Rostov-on-Don and then towards Moscow – presaged a sequence of events that could change the course of Russian history. While the mutiny was quickly aborted, it seems unlikely to be the end of it either for Prigozhin or for Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, who now looks seriously weakened.
The dissonance of the enemy within is captured brilliantly by Neil Jamieson’s cover artwork this week, a Wagner military patch portraying Putin’s targeted face.
“Military badges represent the ethos, mission, attitude and (often) sense of humour of the unit,” says Neil. “Creating a patch that Wagner fighters might have worn last weekend during their march on Moscow seemed like a simple way to help visually tell the story of a most bizarre turn of events.”
Luke Harding recounts the 24 hours that shook Russia to its foundations, while Andrew Roth considers the future for Putin and Prigozhin. Lorenzo Tondo reports from Ukraine, where jubilation turned to frustration, but hopes remain that events could hasten the war’s end. Then Peter Pomerantsev argues how the west can now exploit Putin’s vulnerabilities to deliver a knockout blow.
As an appetiser for the big story, you might wish to turn first to the Features pages, where Russian-born American culinary writer Anya von Bremzen explains how borsch, the beetroot soup that is Ukraine’s national dish, became a symbol of the invasion.
On 22 June 1948, the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury, carrying about 500 people from the Caribbean who marked the symbolic beginning of a multicultural Britain. Seventy-five years later, the children of its passengers talk to Amelia Gentleman about the Windrush’s enduring legacy.
Glastonbury festival closed last weekend with an emotionally charged set from Elton John, who stated it was to be his last-ever live show in the UK. On the Culture pages, Alexis Petridis and Laura Snapes round up the highlights from the arts and music bonanza, while in Eyewitness there’s a selection of festival portraits by the legendary photographer of British life, Martin Parr.
