PRESIDENT UNDER PRESSURE

Russia's Vladimir Putin is facing a serious crisis after an attempted coup in his country

- DENNIS CAVERNELIS

IT'S been a year and four months since Russia invaded Ukraine and up until now President Vladimir Putin has seemed untouchable. Nothing - not criticism by global leaders or sanctions against his country has made a tangible dent in his armour. But a recent coup attempt has shaken the Russian leader's foundations and left him vulnerable, experts say. We take a closer look.

THE COUP THAT NEVER WAS

On 23 June, oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group mercenary army, announced he was taking 25 000 of his fighters from the front in Ukraine and marching to the Russian capital, Moscow.

Prigozhin has been a staunch Putin ally so the move came as a shock.

By many accounts Prigozhin has become increasingly powerful and he was furious at the government's attempts to effectively shut down his private paramilitary force.

He demanded the removal of defence minister Sergei Shoigu and military commander-in-chief Valery Gerasimov.

He blamed them for undersupplying his troops with ammunition, accused them of sacrificing Russian soldiers in failed missions and said they'd seized eastern Ukraine only to plunder it.

His biggest beef seems to have been with Shoigu, whom he accused of orchestrating the invasion of Ukraine only so he could be awarded a hero of Russia medal.

Shoigu's ministry attacked his soldiers while they were in Ukraine fighting for Russia, Prigozhin said - and this is what prompted him to turn on Putin. The ex-convict and former hotdog seller led a convoy of armoured vehicles towards the capital. They stopped along the way to claim control of Rostov-on-Don, a city of more than a million people and a logistics centre for the Ukraine war.