Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on tv in St. Petersburg, Russia, addressing his nation in reference to the Wagner Group insurrection led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

SOPA Images/LightRocket through Getty Images

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SOPA Images/LightRocket through Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on tv in St. Petersburg, Russia, addressing his nation in reference to the Wagner Group insurrection led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

SOPA Images/LightRocket through Getty Images

ISTANBUL, Turkey – As occasions unfolded in Russia over the weekend, hundreds of Russians who left for Turkey after their nation invaded Ukraine remained glued to their screens. They stored up with family and friends again house and relied on the Telegram messaging app and opposition information sources because the Wagner mercenary group staged a mutiny in a march to Moscow, threatening the federal government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Elena and Maxim, a pair of their 20s, watched from Istanbul.

“It was a circus,” says Elena.

They and different Russians in Istanbul who spoke to NPR didn’t need their full names used as a result of they nonetheless work for Russian corporations remotely and worry retaliation for expressing their views.

Less than 24 hours after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the top of the Wagner Group, started his armed rebellion and march to Moscow, he referred to as it off. A deal had been made, in line with Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov. Prigozhin would go to Belarus, and costs of mutiny towards him could be dropped.

Russia has relied on Wagner mercenaries to advance its navy objectives, together with in Ukraine.

Elena and Maxim are actually apprehensive that Putin may enhance repressive measures, and that life for his or her household and associates in Moscow goes to get a lot tougher.

“Everyone we know in Russia is already going through like prolonged depression,” Maxim says. “Life under autocracy is something else. You can’t judge it until you are in it.”

“As we see, for people in Russia, it’s really difficult to make government go away. They have a lot of power,” Elena says.

Ilya, one other Istanbul resident who used to volunteer as an election watcher in Russia, was following the occasions with a gaggle of associates who’re near Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition chief. Even although Ilya and his associates suppose Prigozhin is an unsavory character, they’d their hopes up.

“Everything which can diminish the power of Putin is good,” Ilya says. “So, when we heard about this news, like, we were very positive. But then it was like the worst end of a TV series. It was a fluke, nothing happened in the end.”

Ilya says he and his associates have been involved with Russian politicians from rural areas — members of Russia United, the most important political occasion — all through the chaos. Even they have been rooting for change, he says.

“They are part of Putin’s party, but they were hoping that it will, it will, like, bring some changes, maybe stop the war or like topple the Putin’s regime,” says Ilya. “So even, like, among Putin’s supporters, among all these government officials, there are definitely a lot of people which are against him.”

NPR has not been in a position to independently verify this account.

The hope, Ilya says, was that Wagner’s march would encourage different armed teams teams just like the Free Russia Legion to unite, and would flip into a much bigger resistance that might carry down Putin’s regime.

“But Prigozhin betrayed this opportunity. Because we don’t know his true intentions. He’s a like a murderer himself, he’s a thief, he’s just a war criminal,” Ilya says. “But still we hoped that if somehow this internal tension exploded in Russia, it definitely should have helped Ukraine to drive back Russian troops and free its own territory. And this didn’t happen as well.”

Still, Russians who spoke with NPR agree that Putin seems extra weakened now than ever earlier than.

“I think he doesn’t care to some extent about international reaction. But for the general public, they saw that Putin is not so powerful,” Ilya says.

The chaos of mutiny could also be over for now, Ilya says, nevertheless it’s solely a matter of time earlier than turmoil begins once more.