For a millisecond, it seemed possible. Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the Russian caterer turned warlord — armed with tanks and a private army— showed Russia and the world what an alternative to President Vladimir V. Putin might look like. It was only the second time in Mr. Putin’s 23 years in power that a rebelling leader with populist appeal had flashed a vision of a conceivable Russia after Mr. Putin. The other occasion was in 2011, when Aleksei A. Navalny led a pro-democracy uprising on the streets of the capital. Mr. Prigozhin, whose mercenaries have been accused of indiscriminate killings and other crimes, made clear that those forces could be equally if not more grim.

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Persons: Yevgeny V, Russian caterer, —, Vladimir V, Putin, Putin’s, Aleksei A, Navalny, Prigozhin Locations: Russian, Russia, Moscow, Ukraine