About a million thrillers have begun with the idea of one or more of Russia’s nuclear weapons being stolen by some villain — The Peacemaker is a good example — or a civil war in Russia raising the possibility of extremists gaining control of one of Russia’s nuclear-weapons sites, as in Crimson Tide.
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s short-lived coup attempt is understandably stirring up those worries again, with articles in the Wall Street Journal and Reuters focusing on the West’s concerns. The Daily Telegraph reports that the U.S. government “was worried that Vladimir Putin would lose control of his nuclear arsenal during a coup attempt in Russia by Yevgeny Prigozhin.” On Saturday, a Ukrainian military group claimed that Wagner mercenaries intended to seize a Russian defense ministry warehouse in Voronezh Oblast that held nuclear weapons.
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