Prigozhin's rebellion undermined Putin's standing among Russian elite, officials say

Members of Russia's elite have questioned Russian president Vladimir Putin's judgment in the aftermath of the short-lived armed rebellion mounted last month by his former caterer and Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, senior Western officials said at an annual security conference this week.  

"For a lot of Russians watching this, used to this image of Putin as the arbiter of order, the question was, 'Does the emperor have no clothes?' Or at least, 'Why is it taking so long for him to get dressed?'" CIA Director William Burns said Thursday. "And for the elite, I think what it resurrected was some deeper questions…about Putin's judgment, about his relative detachment from events and about his indecisiveness."  

Burns and other top Western officials spoke at the annual Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. While acknowledging the fallout from the attempted mutiny was not yet fully known, several of the officials, citing Putin's known penchant for revenge, had macabre expectations for Prigozhin's fate.