On August 23rd, Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a mysterious plane crash just 60 days after his mercenary group Wagner led a failed coup attempt that Russian president Vladimir Putin called “treasonous.”

Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum argues that Putin needed a spectacular act of violence after Prigozhin’s challenge to his power. She and Ray discuss what this means for a fragile Russia. 

Read Applebaum’s latest column for The Atlantic,  Prigozhin’s Death Heralds Even More Spectacular Violence - The Atlantic.  

Guest:

Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian, author of   Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism and staff writer at The Atlantic.

Host:  

Ray Suarez

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