Wagner & Putin: The Russian Coup?

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On the 24th of June 2023, amidst rising tensions within Russia, the Wagner mercenary group rebelled against the Russian Government. With news outlets suddenly flooded with images of erected barricades and military vehicles on the streets of Moscow - it was initially unclear what was going on. While details of the event remain murky in the West, it is clear to say that this rebellion posed the most significant challenge to Putin's authority in the 21st century. So, what exactly happened in Russia, and who are the Wagner group?

In this episode, James welcomes Professor Rory Cormac to the podcast to examine the role coups have played throughout history, and determine if any of these examples can be applied to modern-day Russia. By exploring the role of propaganda and the funding of covert government organisations, they delve into how the Wagner group attained such power and question whether this marks a turning point in Putin's authoritarian rule.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code WARFARE. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up here.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

For more Warfare content, subscribe to our Warfare Wednesday newsletter here.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You may have missed it, it was over in a flash, but last weekend Yevgeny Progozen, the brutal convicted criminal, who leads the Russian Wagner mercenary group, declared war on the Russian Ministry of Defence.
0:12.6	He left the front lines of the war in Ukraine
0:15.9	and marched into the Russian city of Rostov,
0:18.7	occupying the regional military headquarters.
0:21.5	He then headed north for Moscow, carrying his demands for
0:24.8	austing the Minister of Defence, Sergei Shogu, and the chief of the general staff,
0:29.6	Garasimov. Commentators around the world said that this was the end of Putin and of So what happened? And what can the long history of coups around the world tell us about why this coup went wrong?
0:46.4	I'm your host James Patton Rogers. This is warfare and to take us through this coup that wasn't a coup
0:51.8	We have Professor Rory Kormak on the podcast.
0:55.1	Rory is a world expert on coup d'atars and regime change and the author of a timely book,
1:00.1	How to Stage A Coup, and 10 are the lessons from the world of secret statecraft.
1:05.0	As such, Rory is the perfect person to place these latest seismic events into their proper historical context.
1:12.0	Enjoy.
1:13.0	Enjoy.
1:14.0	Hi Rory, welcome to warfare. How you doing?
1:20.0	I'm doing pretty well thank you James
1:24.7	pleasure to be here well it's great to have you on the podcast I can only imagine
1:28.0	it has been an incredibly busy period given the fact that you work on coup d'etage. You've written the book
1:34.6	How to Stage a coup. You've either had all the press coming to you and asking what the
1:39.2	hell has been going on over the weekend or you've had perhaps certain mercenary leaders ask you about
1:45.3	how to stage better coups has it been a busy weekend it has but I was at my cousin's
1:49.9	wedding so I had my phone off for most of it and it was quite bizarre. My phone was lighting up as you can imagine. I then turned it off to be a good cousin. Turn my phone back on again and it was all over. Crazy scenes. You missed the coup. I missed the coup because I was a glamping style wedding which I must say was great fun.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.