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Well the Russian invasion of Russia turned out to be vastly more successful than the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
After 16 months of stalemate, with Russian forces bogged down by incompetence, corruption and infighting, the Ukraine war yesterday boomeranged right back at Vladimir Putin.
The rebellion by his Wagner militia is the most significant challenge to him since he came to power 23 years ago.
And though Putin´s former ally Yevgeny Prigozhin pulled back his advance on Moscow – allegedly to avoid bloodshed – two things now seem clear.
The first is the likelihood that this is the beginning of the end of the war in Ukraine.
Russian forces have been at a stalemate for over a year now, having failed to seize the Ukrainian capital in the opening days of the war, and proving unable to gain any significant new territory since.
By contrast, after accusing the Kremlin of deliberately bombing his own troops, Prigozhin in 24 hours managed to storm into Russia, take over at least one city and get within a few hundred miles of Moscow. Vladimir Putin appears to have fled the capital.
Whatever happens now, it is impossible to see how Russia will be able to regain any momentum in Ukraine.
Since the start of the conflict Putin has relied on mercenary groups like Wagner who report to their own commanders.
This has both allowed Putin to circumvent the incompetent Russian military but also set up a problem for himself.
Because when these militias had any success the resulting glory went to the militia heads, not to Putin and his “special operation.
