30 (number)

• The meeting was unusual: In recent months, Putin has avoided public statements about the war and postponed his annual Russia Day phone-in show scheduled for June.
• He similarly canceled both the June call-in in 2022 as well as his annual news conference in December.

On the defensive?

• These developments further undermine Putin’s argument that this is a “special military operation” and not a war, and that life can continue as normal for ordinary Russians.
• At the same time, Putin is facing a political challenge from Yevgeny Prigozhin, the erstwhile chef-turned-mercenary leader.
• Prigozhin heads the Wagner Group, a private company that has recruited some 50,000 fighters for the Ukraine war on behalf of Moscow.
• They played a key role in the capture of the Ukrainian city Bakhmut, which fell on May 20 after a 224-day siege.

Facing questions

• With the background of more open criticism of a war that has now blown back across the Russian border, Putin faced some tough questions at the meeting with war correspondents.
• Another asked why different regions are allowed to pay different bonuses to contract soldiers from their area.
• In response, Putin could only offer that Russia is a federal system, and regions spend what they can afford.

Desperate measures

• However, members of the Russian elite seem to share the growing unease aired among the bloggers.
• On May 20-21, Russian officials and policy experts attended a meeting of the influential Council on Foreign and Security Policy think tank.
• Judging by reports from people who attended, such as State Duma Deputy Konstantin Zatulin, there was a clear sense that the war is going badly.
• Perhaps the most famous mercenary of all time, Albrecht Von Wallenstein, successfully commanded an army of 50,000 during the Thirty Years’ War.