1/ So many good insights into Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group in this piece by @Bershidsky. His analysis is, thankfully, free of the endless hype and self-promotion that analysis Prigozhin's role in 🇺🇦 normally centers on. bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
2/ I'm especially impressed by the comparison that Bershidsky draws between Putin's current dealings with Prigozhin and his 1990s-era connections to famed Leningrad Vladimir Kumarin who @CatherineBelton chronicled in her book "Putin's People." 
3/ Acc to Bershidsky, the Prigozhin phenomenon is both a manifestation of the degradation of the Putin system as it deals with severe stress & under-performance in 🇺🇦 AND a reminder that (this is key, to my mind) thugs for hire like Prigozhin are still on the outside looking in.
4/ As I wrote in ACCIDENTAL CZAR, one of the pivotal aspects of identity is that he's a true believer in a strong state (gosudarstvennik).
When people like Prigozhin (or Kumarin before him), can be helpful, do errands for the state, etc Putin is all too happy to enlist them.
When people like Prigozhin (or Kumarin before him), can be helpful, do errands for the state, etc Putin is all too happy to enlist them.
5/ Prigozhin and his ilk relentlessly try to look like hotshots on social media and TV because they want a claim on the enormous resources and patronage that "official" parts of the state like the Russian military can lay claim to.
6/ With 50K men in Ukraine and a monthly budget of $100 million, Wagner is clearly moving up in the world. But, as my colleague @Stanovaya explained:
The last paragraph of Bershidsky's piece is especially memorable: I only wish that there was an image by @boxbrown to accompany it! END
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