UK Intelligence: Prigozhin's rhetoric could have lifted taboo on talk of Putin's replacement
The UK Intelligence suggests that a series of critical statements made by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner PMC, has weakened the taboo in Russia on talks about replacing the president.
Source: the UK Ministry of Defence's intelligence review of the Russian-Ukrainian war of 1 June, as European Pravda reports.
The analysts drew attention to the words of Russian politician Boris Nadezhdin on NTV on 27 May, when he called for a new president to be elected in 2024 to normalise relations with Europe.
They note that Nadezhdin has been a prominent critic of the war since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, but this is perhaps the first call for Putin's replacement to be made on a Russian state TV channel.
"Over the past 15 months, the Russian Federation has imposed restrictions on freedom of speech unprecedented since the Soviet era. However, there is a realistic possibility that the recent harsh rhetoric of nationalist circles, such as the owner of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has given opposition figures the courage to raise taboo topics," the text says.
The previous review stated that Russia is increasingly losing the initiative in the war.
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