CNN —Vladimir Putin, meet the Law of Unintended Consequences. In the years leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a St. Petersburg-based businessman named Yevgeny Prigozhin emerged as a canny political entrepreneur. After all, mercenary activity was technically barred by Russian law, and Putin could always maintain that interference in US elections was merely the work of “patriotic” hackers. Prigozhin’s feud with the leadership of the Russian military is longstanding, and many observers suggested that this was part of the intricate game of court politics under Putin. After Prigozhin’s forces seized Rostov-on-Don, a video surfaced that showed Prigozhin in a tense conversation with two Russian military commanders.

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