Putin will cling on to power until people inside the Kremlin are up for the fight

Prigozhin’s march on Moscow will have frightened Putin – but the Russian leader survived because no other senior figures joined the call for change, writes historian Peter Frankopan

Nerves were certainly jangling in the Kremlin on Saturday, yet no senior level figures sided with the mutiny, spoke of the need for change, demanded reform of any kind and none fell out of line (Getty/AP)

It was over almost as soon as it started. The events that unfolded on Saturday looked ominous. As Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group took control of Rostov-on-Don and began to move on Moscow, the Russian authorities were certainly rattled.

Orders were given to dig up roads, to slow down the column of military vehicles apparently heading north; lorries were lined up to block motorways; Red Square was closed to visitors as steps were taken to boost security; government planes took off for the apparent safety of St Petersburg – though who was aboard was unclear.

President Putin took the extraordinary step of taking to the airwaves on Saturday to make an emergency televised address. To those outside Russia, it was clear that he was talking about what looked like an insurrection, perhaps even a coup. “We are facing a betrayal,” he said, solemnly and clearly rattled. “Any internal mutiny is a lethal threat to our state, to us as a nation,” he went on. “It is a blow against Russia, against our people. And our actions to defend the fatherland from such a threat will be brutal.”