Topic: Putin’s Russia After Prigozhin’s Wagner Mutiny

Speaker: David Edick Jr., Principal at Core Global Advisory

Presentation:
The Prigozhin/Wagner mutiny in Russia was a monumental, even traumatic event for Russians...but the longer run implications will have global impact, firstly on the war in Ukraine. The mutiny represents the largest domestic shock to the political system Putin created since his ascendance to power in 1999. It cracked Putin's aura of competence for managing power in that system and has thrown Putin's political future into doubt. 

This crisis has long been coming, and represents a massive political failure. Yet, why did Putin allow the conditions leading to the crisis to stew & fester? 

The crisis has shoved Russia into uncharted territory. As a result of the mutiny a new political chapter has opened in Russia...substantially as a consequence of the war in Ukraine, but which also draws in questions about the kind of society that has emerged in Russia in the post-Soviet era. 

The great consequence for Russians is that there are more questions than answers. This eruption of uncertainty is interacting with the memory of the collapse of the USSR and Russia's subsequent catastrophic decade of the 1990s - all in the context of what is widely seen in Russia as a disastrous war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the world faces its own uncertainty...looking in, looking on…often unable to understand what they are seeing…and unable to influence the drama playing out before it.

In his presentation David Edick will discuss:
- the origins of Yevgeny Prigozhin and PMC Wagner
- the roots of the mutiny & its immediate consequences
- the role & impact of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's intervention in the crisis
- the response of the Russian elite and general public to the crisis
- the impact of the crisis on international energy, commodity & financial markets in the short & long term
- the potential impact on the war in Ukraine
- the potential impact on the future of political & economic power in Russia 

Speaker’s bio:
David Edick Jr. is Principal at Core Global Advisory, a consultancy focused on political risk, commodities, and market strategy. David has over 30 years' experience in trade, investment banking, and NGO relations in Russia. He has worked abroad in Russia in the food trade and investment banking, and in Mexico in the seafood export development business. 

David also serves as a member of the Energy Committee for the Western Regional Partnership, a collaborative between the Department of Defense and representatives of Federal agencies and State and Tribal leadership in 6 states of the US southwest. He also serves on the Natural Resources Committee and the Tribal Engagement Working Group. 

Drawing on his global perspective and experience, David has lectured widely for more than 15 years on energy, finance and geopolitics.

Long active in San Diego's international civil society community, David is 3-term Past President of the San Diego World Affairs Council. He is also 6-term Past President of the San Diego International Sister Cities Association, and 7-term Past President of the San Diego - Vladivostok (Russia) Sister City Society. In 2015 he served as Chair of the Steering Committee which led the establishment of San Diego’s 16th sister city relationship (Panama City, Panama).  David is a longtime participant in the international collaborative Pacific Rim Park program founded by James Hubbell. 

David graduated from San Diego State University in 1985 with a custom-designed, cross-disciplinary degree in Global Political Economy. David and his family live in Rancho San Diego, California.