Footage appears to show mercenaries from the Wagner mercenary group, lately propping up Vladimir Putin's halted invasion of Ukraine, "storming the headquarters of the Russian Defense Ministry" in Rostov, a Russian city not far from the border of the two countries.
The BBC reports that the mercenaries' leader, Yevgheny Prighozin, is vowing to topple the Russian military leadership, and that Putin has accused him of mutiny and is expected to make a televised address presently. An arrest warrant for Prighozin was also announced; for his part, Prigozhin accused the Russian military of launching a missile strike on Wagner troops.
It's all very exciting, but Machiavelli wrote long ago about about mercenaries' tendency to stage grandiose but bloodless battles with one another and their patrons as part of the show.
