Lord Purvis reviews 'Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin, and the new fight for the future of Russia'

Moscow, 2011: Prigozhin serves food to then-prime minister Putin | Image by: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

Lord Purvis of Tweed

@PurvisTweed

Driving through Khartoum is a dusty affair. Before the terrible war being inflicted on the civilians of Sudan I was in the capital and waiting in a small queue of cars at a junction. White Toyota land cruisers are a standard feature: with an ochre sand covering. Two other land cruisers then came into view but stood out. They were mirror black, highly polished with dark tinted windows and a fair disregard for road courtesies. The driver of my car simply looked at me and said: “Wagner”.

A propensity for being noticed. Making statements. Being known. This is a feature of one of the characters in this fascinating power play: Yevgeny Prigozhin. But in Anna Arutunyan and Mark Galeotti’s telling of the relationship between him and his sponsor-come-assassin Vladimir Putin, we see a glimpse of what it was like to be close to but not in the Putin court, and how dangerous it was to resent those who were.

Zhenya and Vova (Prigozhin and Putin’s familiar names we learn) rose through differing paths. One through petty and then less petty crime; the other an administrative route in the KGB. Zhenya found skills in the Zone – the Soviet penal camp system – and Vova found that he could profit (personally and professionally) from the rapid reforms in the post-Soviet era. As Prigozhin’s business world developed via high-end catering to the newly rich, and low-end mass catering to the Russian state; a troll farm for dis- and misinformation, as well as media; he also became the trusted restaurateur who served Putin and world leaders. This is where the book says the misnomer of ”Putin’s chef” originated. Putin’s grandfather actually was a chef to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, we read.

Prigozhin overreaches and Putin procrastinates

Prigozhin became a ‘minigarch’ and the closer he got to providing services to the oligarchs the more resentful he became. “Prigozhin’s anger at feeling excluded and taken for granted would push him into dangerous overreach,” the authors tell us.

The two men who couldn’t let go of a grudge. Prigozhin against those who scrutinised him, or military commanders who looked down on him, and Putin against oligarchs who didn’t operate under the rules of his court (and of course Hillary Clinton).

When Prigozhin’s business expanded into mercenary forces, it initially provided Putin and the defence minister Sergei Shoigu with a disownable means to project Russian power. First across Africa, as in Sudan where gold smugglers were presented as “peacekeepers”, but then when needed in Ukraine in the faltering ‘special operation’. This is where the overreach became deadly. Too much frustration against Shoigu and the generals who let his “boys” down meant he wanted to project his own power and seek a better deal with Putin for his Wagner operation. But the decision had already been made to change the mercenary model.

An interesting feature of the book is the view that Putin struggles with making difficult decisions. This was described in detail about the failures that led to the Prigozhin march on Moscow, and its handling.

Prigozhin overreaches and Putin procrastinates. The combination being deadly for the former when Putin finally decided that being noticed, making statements and being known was a threat and not a convenience. For anyone needing a well-paced, very well-researched and journalistically written account of one of the most fascinating recent developments in Russian history, and why it happened, then I recommend Downfall.

Lord Purvis of Tweed is a Liberal Democrat peer

Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin, and the new fight for the future of Russia
By: Anna Arutunyan & Mark Galeotti
Publisher: Ebury Press

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