Putin's potential successors

His reign can't last forever. Who are the leading alternatives?

Vladimir Putin
(Image credit: Illustrated | Gettyimages)

The head of the Wagner mercenary army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, recently led his forces to capture the military headquarters in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don before turning his convoy toward Moscow, only to abruptly halt the advance. He then reportedly agreed to go to Belarus in exchange for all charges against him stemming from the rebellion being dropped. The bizarre series of events shook Russian strongman Vladimir Putin's hold on power, which is thought to have been weakened by the country's barbaric and increasingly disastrous invasion of Ukraine.

Today, Putin remains in power, but Prigozhin's aborted coup was a reminder that his reign can't last forever. "Here's the bottom line: even if it is now snuffed out, an alternative was allowed to arise," historian Stephen Kotkin told Foreign Affairs. Who are the leading alternatives to replace Putin as president of the Russian Federation?

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David Faris

David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. He is a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Indy Week.