So what really happened in Russia? Your guess is probably as good as anyone else’s. From Joe Lauria at consortiumnews.com:
UPDATED: Putin met with Prigozhin five days after the rebellion as analysts differ on why it happened. It is an episode with lessons to be learned for both Russia and the West, writes Joe Lauria.
Updated to include news that Putin met with Prigozhin three days after the rebellion.
Two weeks since the bizarre events in Russia on the weekend of June 23-25 there still remain different interpretations of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s 36-hour adventure on the road to Moscow and its aftermath.
Was it a genuine mutiny or coup attempt? Was he working with Western or Ukrainian intelligence? What is Prizgozhin ‘s and the Wagner group’s future? And, most importantly, why did he do it?
The drama ended when Prigozhin called off his march on the capital, turning around his column of 4,000 or so Wagner men. With Russian special forces in Moscow arrayed to meet him at the city gates, and Chechen forces headed to Rostov-on Don, which he partially occupied, reason took hold as Prigozhin realized death awaited him and his men.
The anguish in London and Washington was palpable. They thought they were on the verge of achieving the principle aim of their war against Russia: overthrowing Vladimir Putin. They are still pushing the line that Putin was irrevocably weakened by the event and that Russia is a dangerously unstable country.
The Deal
The president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, worked out a deal to end the crisis. In return Russia – for the moment anyway – dropped its criminal charges of mutiny against Prigozhin.
Wagner expanded into 9 countries during the distraction.
Omni Consumer Products might hire them in Baja California for security.
You might want to have an air force or missile defense before heading towards Moscow.
They needed a horny Viking helmet for a really good coup putsch insurrection to storm the sacred lectern in the temple of governance.