Russian President Vladimir Putin with Donald Trump, Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018


I joined Times Radio’s Rosie Wright on Friday morning to analyze the latest developments over Vladimir Putin’s possible assassination of Wagner Group mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin — and to consider the military and political consequences in Russia, Ukraine, and areas like the Middle East and Africa.

If Putin is showing, “Cross me and you do so at your peril”, that is only for the short term. In the longer term, there is real discontent inside Russia, even if it is silent or quietly expressed — with the way the war in Ukraine is going, with Russia suffering economically, and Russia’s political isolation.

We also consider how Putin’s salvation, amid his failing invasion of Ukraine, might lie in Donald Trump winning a second term.

If Donald Trump — a man who expressed admiration for Vladmir Putin, a man who supported Russia’s seizure of Crimea — comes into the White House in January 2025, it is a significant threat not just to Ukraine but to the “rules of the game” of international order since 1945.

Listen to Full Discussion from 40:16

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See also Ukraine War, Day 548: Putin Expresses Condolences For Probable Assassination of Prigozhin That He Probably Ordered

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