Thread by @MarkGaleotti

“Why the events of Saturday did not weaken, but only strengthened our country.” This article in the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda gives a good sense of the new propaganda line, as the Kremlin desperately tries to spin the Prigozhin mutiny 1/
kp.ru/daily/27520.5/…

“Russia passed another test”, it begins, excoriating “the great couch army” that hid on Saturday or praised Prigozhin, and then “began Sunday morning with belligerent statements that the authorities had done everything wrong again.” 2/

But who was the real hero? Not #Lukashenko, though “let’s not argue, he played a big role” but really just as a mouthpiece for "a man who, in a difficult situation, did not lose his composure, acting, as always, as efficiently and rationally as possible.” Of course: Putin 3/

No talk, of course, of his likely evacuation from Moscow region, nor his personal refusal to talk to Prigozhin, necessitating Luka's involvement 4/
spectator.co.uk/article/did-pu…

After all, he could easily have wiped out Wagner, and almost any other “militant general” would have, but “Thank God they are not this place. And thank God that Putin is there.” 5/

Why? Interestingly, here the cloying hagiography skirts a real truth when it continues “If you haven't noticed so far, Vladimir Vladimirovich really doesn't like the toughest decisions, and even more so, to bring things to the point of bloodshed.” 6/

(Admittedly, I’d suggest that last would be news to the people of Ukraine, Chechnya, Georgia, Syria…)

But it is true that Putin tends to dither when faced with tough choices, even that is not what the starstruck writer is saying 7/

Instead, “both with political opponents and arrogant oligarchs, he prefers to try to solve matters peacefully… only when all the methods have been exhausted, Putin makes a tough decision, but... after that... this decision... cannot be changed by any persuasion.” 8/

Thus, we are told that he had struggled for ages to try and get the Ukrainians to see sense “insofar as he did not want blood and really considered them (I don’t if he now still does) a fraternal Russian people.” But when he had to decide otherwise, well, that’s it 9/

As regards Wagner, he wanted to avoid bloodshed, but would have given the order “had they crossed the ‘red line’ and began to pose a real threat to the country” even though they lacked “the necessary support for either among the people or the authorities” to trigger civil war 10/

But as is, it all worked out, “and so, it is clearly not worth lamenting and complaining: everything was done according to the optimal scenario.” [ie, nothing to see here, move on] 11/

Russia is not weakened. Oh no. Quite the opposite: this “only strengthened it, showing that it can cope with any crises, both external and internal. Within less than a day… Russia has passed another test, and Putin, another crash test.” 12/

“There are two more things to remember. Putin never chooses outwardly spectacular solutions, but always effective ones... After yesterday, the confidence that our country has exactly the kind of leader it needs has only grown stronger... We move on. To spite our enemies.” 13/