How I'm following the rebellion in Russia

A quick note directing you to the live blogs I'm reading as this crisis unfolds.

Putin and Prigozhin more than a decade ago, when the Russian president was touring his caterer’s food factory.

At the risk of revealing myself to be a literal meme Elon Musk tweeted, I spent most of last night, until about 3 a.m., following the crisis unfolding in Russia right now. I started watching again this morning. 

You probably already know the basics: 

• Vladimir Putin’s government has relied heavily on an oligarch-owned mercenary company called the Wagner Group to make up for the Russian military’s losses in Ukraine. 

• The Wagner Group grew over the past decade into what the Wall Street Journal characterized as something more of a paramilitary-cum-cartel, compensated for its secretive missions all over western Africa, where allegations of mercenaries raping and massacring civilians abound, with mining permits for gold and other metals. 

• Wagner also played a big role in Russia’s operations in Syria, where the mercenary fighters mimicked Islamic State-style brutality, torturing and mutilating perceived traitors on video. (The WSJ documentary linked above features an interview with the brother of one such victim, reportedly a young Syrian soldier drafted into the civil war who had tried to escape some fighting and was captured, tortured and killed by Wagner men). 

• More recently, Wagner has released videos of their mercenaries executing accused deserters and turncoats on video by smashing their heads with sledgehammers. 

• Wagner’s leader is the Russian oligarch and billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose business operations included handling catering for the Kremlin, earning him the nickname “Putin’s chef.” 

• In recent weeks, Prigozhin has taken the usual step of directly criticizing the Russian military leaders and war effort, claiming that the Ministry of Defense is sending soldiers into the meat grinder in Ukraine and claiming the Kremlin’s pretenses for war were wrong. 

• Yesterday, he marched his forces in Russia, seized a Russian military command in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, and is now headed toward Moscow.

• Putin has accused Prigozhin of “betrayal” and vowed to quash his rebellion. 

• Prigozhin now says he will halt his advance on Moscow and return to his basecamps in Ukraine.

  

  A map of the rebel advance via Wikimedia Commons.

Things are moving fast, and I have no professional insights into Russia. But in an effort to keep you all informed in a media environment filled with propaganda and misinformation, I wanted to deviate from my usual programming here and share what I am following to keep up with this news. 

1. The Financial Times, whose Russia correspondent Max Seddon is one of the best reporters covering the region. You should follow him on Twitter if you’re not subscribed to the paper.

2. The Guardian, whose freely-available live blog has been far more detailed and frequently updated over the past day than The New York Times, which I am also following. 

3. Meduza, the Russian newspaper operated from outside Russia since the Kremlin banned journalism at the start of the war, which is also running a routinely-updated liveblog with lots of contextualized videos from Russian social media and Telegram. 

4. Vlad Vexler, a Russian analyst and philosopher in Britain who has put out lots of interesting videos on his various YouTube channels throughout the war. He broadcast a three-hour stream last night, and a shorter explainer on Prigozhin’s calculus here. 

5. Visegrad 24, a pro-NATO Baltic news organization with frequent tweets. 

Good luck, and let me know if there is anything you recommend I follow as well.