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Why it matters: The failed Russian coup exposes the fundamental weakness of Vladimir Putin.

Was it a drama or a farce that played out last weekend on the road to Moscow? The coup-that-wasn’t spluttered to a meek ending Saturday, with mercenary warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin abruptly halting his column of armored vehicles a few hundred miles from the Kremlin and accepting exile in Belarus.

We doubt the validity of Vladimir Putin’s amnesty offer — he does not let bygones be bygones — but Prigozhin’s fate is not our concern. Between Putin and Prigozhin, there is nobody for those who treasure democracy to root for.

The established autocrat and the pretender each backed down, two bloodstained killers piously professing their desire to avoid bloodshed. The reality is that each thought himself too weak to risk a decisive confrontation.

That is almost certainly true of Prigozhin. While his private army, Wagner, has arguably been the most able of the Russian forces in Ukraine, his coup attempt needed the outright support of the official Russian military. What he found was at best a sullen neutrality. Prigozhin cut his losses and surrendered.

But the whole episode is also a disturbing sign for Putin. His regime rests on brute force and cruelty, and this weekend, its military wrecked in Ukraine, it could not muster an effective response to an obvious armed rebellion.

Last weekend exposed Putin’s fundamental weakness. He staved off the immediate crisis, but his regime’s days are numbered. The only questions are the specific number — and what will follow when he is inevitably deposed.

President Joe Biden, who wisely kept quiet during the Prigozhin crisis, knows full well that Washington cannot play an open and direct role in replacing Putin. Ideally the next regime will desire to become a legitimate peer to civilized nation states rather than a threat. That won’t come naturally to anybody in Putin’s circle.

— Mankato Free Press, June 29