From this Substack post
Was this an attempted coup?
No one beside Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Alexander Lukashenko, and maybe CIA director William J. Burns or director of national intelligence Avril Haines, actually knows. Putin described it as a betrayal. The White House described it as “whatever occurred in Russia this past weekend” in Monday’s press briefing. Prigozhin called it a “march for justice,” whatever that is.
But there’s no consensus as of right now. Was Prigozhin trying to take down Putin? Was he trying to force Putin’s hand and get rid of the defense minister? Was it more of an insurrection or an uprising than a carefully choreographed coup? China’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs called it the “Wagner Group Incident.” Many (most?) American reporters covering this keep talking about the “apparent coup” or “apparent rebellion.”