NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
A close ally of Vladimir Putin has admitted what the Russian leader is too weak to: that Volodymyr Zelensky is strong.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the man behind the Wagner Group private army, said it would be wrong for the Kremlin to underestimate the president.
Kremlin-linked propaganda sources have sought to discredit the Ukrainian president since he took office in 2019, including by pushing smears that he uses drugs or is a neo-Nazi.
While Moscow has publicly belittled the man who thwarted his ambitions of a crushing military victory, Mr Prigozhin has conceded that the caricature presented to the Russian public is false.