The panic of 24 June, as the troops of renegade warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin seemed set to march into Moscow, was still fresh in people's minds. Putin, who had disappeared from public view for nearly two days as the crisis came to a head, was now holding meetings with various key players, including the editors of loyal media outlets, to project an image of calm control.
"The main message was that he is dealing with the situation," said Konstantin Remchukov, editor-in-chief of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, a newspaper with Kremlin connections, who was present at the meeting. "He is starting to investigate and will ask every question, find everything out and draw the necessary conclusions."
As the shock of last month's drama starts to wear off and those in the political elite begin to digest events, which Putin himself claimed almost spilled into "civil war", there are many questions hanging in the air.
Why did Putin allow Prigozhin, whose outspoken tirades hardly made him an under-the-radar threat, to grow powerful enough to launch such a serious mutiny? Why was Putin so absent during the critical moments? And ifitis apparently so easy to launch an armed attack on the centre of power, what is to stop others from doing so in future?
A senior western diplomat in Moscow said: "The atmosphere is even more surreal than usual. On the one hand, life goes on and everyone pretends nothing is wrong; on the other, everyone realises that something may have broken permanently."
The Kremlin line, transmitted by state television channels and emphasised by Putin in public appearances, is that society at large came together to ensure the mutiny was defeated.
"The message now is that even a weak Putin is better than civil war," said Alexandra Prokopenko, a former adviser to the Russian central bank.
Esta historia es de la edición July 07, 2023 de The Guardian Weekly.
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