Is it possible that Putin and Wagner played us all?

As a former student of the hospitality industry myself, I got excited a few days ago seeing a well-rounded chef cooking up something deadly in Russia in a heartbeat. But, there’s this feeling in me that the so-called attempted coup by the Wagner group might have been staged by Putin himself.

I’m not underrating Prigozhin because of his former occupation as a cook/chef. After all, Pol Pot was a cook, too - he did wonders for Cambodia. 
Prigozhin’s Wagner is state funded, and his catering business relies heavily on state contracts. It is, therefore, hard to see Wagner biting a hand that’s feeding it. Putin himself allowed Wagner to set up a shadow command and supply chain inside Russia.

Secondly, the outcome of that short uprising has largely benefited Putin. Prigozhin is retiring and will stay in Belarus. Putin has basically put the genie back in the bottle - the Wagner group would have been difficult to contain after the Ukraine war. 
Some of Wagner’s fighters will now be absorbed into the Russian military, and this will give Russia a boost in the number of experienced and disciplined soldiers. 
The Wagner weapons will be transferred to the Russian military. Now, decide for yourself whether Russia is strengthened or weakened.

The history of Russia, including modern episodes since the fall of the USSR, clearly indicates that the Russian military has no qualms about shooting at civilians if necessary. 
It was, therefore, odd that the Wagner militants  took over Southern Military Command Headquarters without a struggle. Meanwhile, Russia was still able to launch missile attacks on Kiev and other parts of Ukraine as the uprising was going on inside Russia. Unbelievable!
Please, don’t get me wrong; the Ukraine war seems to be a good incentive for a coup against Putin, but Russia has been through a far worse crisis back in 2008 which put much more strain on Putin’s close elite allies due to recession. 

Still, nobody managed or even seemed to attempt to contest Putin’s authority. 
Since then, he further solidified his rule and disposed of his potential rivals.
If you can make the king bleed, people will cease to believe in him, but nothing happened to Putin personally, apart from the uprising, making him look a bit weak. He still didn’t show panic during the uprising.
 
In fact, the day of the attempted coup, On TV show “Good Morning, Little Ones!”, children were being taught how to wash hands. 
A brass orchestra performed military songs on federal TV stations to mock Prigozhin’s Wagner troops.

In Moscow, authorities announced a counter-terrorist operation, but where were the terrorists? Oh, they were held up about a thousand miles south. Honestly, It was odd that Prigozhin’s forces apparently approached Moscow on a highway without being destroyed. 
I would have thought that the FSB (or FSO subunit of FSB, which protects the Kremlin) would do or say something, but they did not. 

Putin is a seasoned spy who knows how to protect himself.The first thing to remember here is that if a coup was really in the works against Putin, the best chance for it to succeed would be if no one knew about it. 

But Wagner broadcasted their intentions to remove Putin in advance, and then a few hours later, they were retreating. 
So, is it possible that Putin was deceiving Nato? Is it possible he wanted to see who was still loyal to him and who wasn’t?

The tricks of deceiving the enemy isn’t something unusual. For instance, another seasoned spy in Uganda, Museveni, did so during the Luweero Bush War in the early 1980s.  
Hitler also did a similar trick when he was looking for a reason to attack Poland. His pretence was to protect Germany from Polish incursions, when Poles attacked a German radio station inside Germany. It was, in fact, the Schutzstaffel (SS) dressed as Poles who carried out the attack, then shot concentration camps (KZ) inmates forced to wear German military uniforms.

However, Putin declaring Prigozhin, a traitor on TV, didn’t give a lot of room for manoeuvres. So, till Prigozhin is dead soon, I won’t believe any more stuff about a coup against his boss.The Wagner chief is now in Belarus - it is hard to believe that Prigozhin abandoned his forces to exit Russia in a deal he can’t enforce.
There is nothing the rest of us can do except eat popcorn and wait for the next Putin and Nato moves as we continue to pray for peace. 

            Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba,    [email protected]