"However much Prigozhin may have previously declared that this was not a coup but a 'march for justice,' when a commander starts talking about imposing his own will on the government..."

"... and 'taking down everyone you send against us,' then that’s a coup.... It is striking that it is Prigozhin who is raising the banner of rebellion.... Before he was a restaurateur and then a businessman, Prigozhin was a petty gangster and spent nine years in Soviet prisons. He spent his twenties in labour camps, being inculcated with the remorseless macho code of the vorovskoi mir, the 'thieves’ world.' Its basic precepts — that you look after your own, never forget a slight, and never back down — appear still to drive him...."

Writes Mark Galeotti, author of "Putin’s Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine," in "Is this the end for Putin? When history records the downfall of the Russian president, it will say the endgame started here..." (London Times).

The obstacles to success are formidable. This is a regime designed to be coup-proof, as multiple security agencies monitor and counter each other.... 

Many in the security forces also sympathise with [Prigozhin] and agree with his criticisms of the conduct of the war — indeed, of late he has been one of the more honest and accurate commentators from the front line. The three pillars on which Putin’s regime rest are his personal legitimacy, his control of the security apparatus, and his capacity to throw money at intractable problems. The money is dwindling, his already-decaying legitimacy is going to take a further hit, and the unity and loyalty of the security apparatus is clearly now open to question....