Wagner forces return to base after aborted mutiny humiliates Putin

Shoigu goes to ground

Vladimir Putin and Sergei Shoigu have sunbathed together shirtless in remote Siberia, shared fishing trips and played in the same ice hockey team. The Russian Defence Minister has long been regarded not only as a political ally of the President, but also as one of his few friends among the Russian elite.

However, their relationship now faces a considerable challenge following the Wagner group revolt – as does Shoigu’s long political career

Shoigu has disappeared from the public eye for the time being, going quiet as Prigozhin successfully seized the headquarters of the Russian army’s Southern Command in Rostov-on-Don, the nerve centre of the invasion of Ukraine. Before the deal with Belarus was struck, Prigozhin accused Shoigu of fleeing “like a coward” and vowed that he “would be arrested”. 

But even before the uprising broke out on Friday evening, Shoigu had suffered myriad public insults from Prigozhin, and was increasingly associated with the Russian military’s failures in Ukraine.

On 12 June, a video of Putin and Shoigu attending a medal ceremony in a military hospital showed the Russian president turning his back on him with apparent contempt – a cruel disgrace for the man who has enjoyed unrivalled longevity in post-Soviet Russia, and whose presence at the heart of power in Moscow predates even Putin’s. (AFP)