Welcome to Monday’s Early Edition from i.
In Moscow, the barricades have been dismantled, government troops have withdrawn, and the roads ripped up to stop the Wagner convoy are being repaired. After 24 hours of “an extraordinary moment in history” a state of calm is reported in the Russian capital. The rebellion by Wagner mercenaries, lead by Yevgeny Prigozhin, ended with the former hot dog seller and restaurant owner retreating from the city of Rostov-on-Don in a blacked-out SUV. Despite its swift end, many, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, believe the uprising showed “real cracks” in Russia’s leadership and “a direct challenge to Putin’s authority”. It’s a sentiment shared by Commons Defence Committee chair Tobias Ellwood who said: “The Wagner Group may be neutered, Prighozin exiled, but Putin is definitely weaker and the hawks are now circling”. But beyond Putin’s potentially diminished grip on power, other questions remain. “Now, a day later, there’s more confusion than there are established facts,” one US intelligence source told i. What might Putin do in retaliation, what happens to the Wagner group and the war in Ukraine, and what of suggestions the entire operation was “orchestrated”? All of that, after the headlines.
Jeremy Hunt will this week press industry regulators to reveal the extent of any profiteering by firms exploiting high inflation rates. The Chancellor is due to meet the watchdogs on Wednesday to ask them to reveal whether companies are failing to pass on lower costs to consumers in prices on the shelves, and ask them what they plan to do to crack down on any profiteering, a Treasury source said.
Sarah, Duchess of York is recovering following surgery for breast cancer, it has been announced. “The duchess is receiving the best medical care and her doctors have told her that the prognosis is good. She is now recuperating with her family,” her spokesperson said.
The Prime Minister has hinted he is prepared to overrule public sector pay review bodies in a bid to prevent pay rises from stoking inflation. It has been suggested the government is considering disregarding recommendations for a 6 per cent pay rise for doctors, nurses and teachers when it publishes formal pay offers next month.
Campaigns are urging the Government to extend paid paternity leave to six weeks as a new study has found it could have far-reaching benefits for gender inequality. The UK has the least generous paternity leave entitlement in Europe, and one in five partners eligible for paternity leave are offered no time off by their workplaces, research has revealed.
A new documentary claims government aides asked Buckingham Palace in July 2020 to request the Queen block Evgeny Lebedev’s peerage. The Palace is understood to have refused, the Guardian reported fearing that the unusual request would drag the Queen into controversial political matters.
Is it the end for Putin? This is the view of many Western officials and analysts, who say the Wagner uprising is a clear sign that Putin’s grip is wavering. Tory MP Tobias Ellwood told i: “Putin’s days are clearly numbered, he might survive the initial wound for a period of time but as Russian history shows, often it triggers a series of subsequent events that lead to the leader’s downfall. Power is ebbing away.” Sergei Markov, a former Russian MP and aide to Putin, told the BBC the events were “an indicator of some crisis in the Russian government”. Prigozhin had very publicly been at loggerheads with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and the head of the military Valery Gerasimov. “Shoigu! Gerasimov! Where is the… ammunition?… They came here as volunteers and die for you to fatten yourselves in your mahogany offices,” Prigozhin yelled at them in one video. The warlord’s criticisms of Russia’s inept military strategies over Ukraine have been stinging. But, as Patrick Cockburn writes, a “striking feature of Mr Putin’s poor direction of the war has been that Generals Shoigu and Gerasimov are still in place, despite these repeated military setbacks”. Lord West, the former First Sea Lord in the Royal Navy, told i Putin has the additional concern of clinging on to power after allowing a hostile force to get so close to Russia’s heart of power. “There’s no way Putin is going to come out of this other than very, very damaged and weakened,” says West. “There will be power struggles in the Kremlin and underlying it all is the worry that Russia does have a very large nuclear arsenal.” There are now fears that Putin could lash out either at Ukraine or within his own country. Polish MEP Radek Sikorski told the BBC that the Russian leader would “probably purge those who he saw as wavering”.
What will happen to Yvegeny Prigozhin and Wagner? “He’s a dead man walking,” says Lord West. “He really should try to avoid standing near open windows. Putin will do everything he can, with all the powers he’s got to get to get rid of him.” The deal which ended the weekend uprising apparently means Prigozhin will leave Russia for Belarus in exchange for the charges against him and his troops being dropped. i‘s David Parsley explains further: While some, like former chief of general staff in the British Army Lord Dannatt, suggest it’s possible Prigozhin may have gone to Belarus to re-launch Moscow’s attempts to attack Kyiv from the north as it did, unsuccessfully, at the outset of the war, others have said the Wagner boss will be looking over his shoulder. Former prime minister Mikhail Kasyano, suggested Prigozhin “will go to Belarus, but I think he will go from Belarus to Africa and be somewhere in the jungle or something like that. Mr Putin cannot forgive him for this.” There is talk of Russia signing up its troops to its regular army, but some are not so sure. “The future plan for Wagner is still very unclear and this is why this episode likely isn’t fully over,” says Justin Crump, chief executive of intelligence consultancy Sibylline. “Wagnerites are unlikely to seamlessly fit into the regular armed forces.” Read the full story here.
What does it mean for the war in Ukraine? Before the end of the weekend’s events, Orysia Lutsevych, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia programme and head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House, suggested it could be “perfect timing for Ukraine.” She told i: “As Kyiv runs shaping military operations along an extensive front line, the infighting between the Ministry of Defence and Wagner mercenaries will create confusion and potential division among the Russian troops deployed in Ukraine”. But now things seem less certain. Lord Dannatt said Prigozhin’s move to Belarus could be “some concern”. He said: “What we don’t know, and what we will discover in the next hours and days, is how many of his fighters have actually gone with him.” Losing Wagner forces may have other implications for Russian foreign policy too, as Keiron Monks explains here.
Could it have been orchestrated? The quick, and possibly bloodless end to the mutiny has left many questions unanswered. One view being considered by some analysts is that it could have been an event orchestrated by the Kremlin. Michael Bociurkiw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Sky News such an operation could have been used to “test the loyalty of people in the military, of other officials. I cannot see Mr Prigozhin riding off into the sunset on a tractor in Belarus, or digging potatoes there, or heading off into the jungle in Africa somewhere. It all ended a little too fast and a little too tidy for my liking.”But BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner dismissed the idea that it could be a plan to install Prigozhin in Belarus. He tweeted: “I admit it’s murky but look at the net effect: Putin weakened, Wagner neutered, Ukrainian morale boosted. Hardly a result for Moscow.”
The 19-year-old who died on the Titan submersible took a Rubik’s cube with him because he wanted to break a world record, his mother told the BBC. In her first interview since the tragedy, Christine Dawood said her son Suleman was “so excited” to try and solve the puzzle, which he could do in just 12 seconds, 3,700 metres underwater.
Hiding in his home in Kabul, Azfaar* is increasingly disheartened by unfulfilled promises from the UK Government to provide a safe and legal route for Afghanistan’s most vulnerable to come to Britain following the Taliban takeover. The 35-year-old father of two feels he has been ‘systematically failed on all levels by the British Government’ after almost two years hiding out from the Taliban.
A worker at San Antonio’s international airport in Texas has died after being sucked into a jet’s engine, it has been reported. The death occurred on Friday as a Delta Air Lines jet which had just arrived from Los Angeles was taxiing to an arrival gate, US National Transportation Safety Board officials said.
Tokyo is becoming a vast turn-off for wealthy foreign residents and investors. According to Expat Insider’s survey, Tokyo ranked in the bottom 10 cities for expats to live in 2022 owing to its onerous work culture as well as its “unfriendliness and language barrier”.
the inquest into the death of mother-of-two Nicola Bulley, which begins today.
The popularity of the ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’ film shows the left’s festering issues are mounting. Unless we learn from the failures of this entire sorry episode, the left will not be able to revive itself, argues Rachel Shabi.
Lewis Capaldi’s Tourette’s struggle at Glastonbury raises questions about our duty of care to celebrities. Sadly, there is still some ignorance around how some of us regard those with neurological conditions, says Stefano Hatfield.
Taylor Swift tour tickets have turned my group chat into a military operation – something has to give. All of this is obviously mad, but it’s become a ritual ahead of any big gig, writes Tom Nicholson.
‘I brought my toddler to Glastonbury – and it was hell’. Parents describe tell Kasia Delgado about the highs and lows of doing the festival with kids, from a 12-week-old baby (conceived here last year) to a family with seven children.
More traumatised children are refusing to go to school – they and their parents are paying the price. Heidi Mavir faced fines and prison when her autistic son had a breakdown and refused to attend school. They aren’t alone: absences are 50% higher this academic year than before Covid, writes Elisa Bray
Nicolas Jackson transfer: Why Pochettino’s clinical first signing can solve Chelsea’s striker woes. The Villarreal striker has passed his medical and agreed personal terms at Chelsea – and has a chance to emerge as the club’s new No 9, writes Oliver Young-Myles.
It’s not often that you get the chance to say goodbye to a legend in the way that we got to bid farewell to Elton John on the final night of Glastonbury, writes Kate Solomon. His final ever UK show was a fitting final reminder that he is more than just big glasses and goofy press shots.
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