Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, after turning his troops against Moscow and vowing to unseat Russian president Vladimir Putin, has changed his mind after a call with Belorusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Prigozhin, smarting over the Kremlin's handling of the war in Ukraine, announced early on Saturday that his mercenaries had seized the major southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, a logistics hub for Putin's war, and threatened to push on to Moscow. Wagner forces also appeared to be well established in the city of Voronezh, 500 kilometers south of the capital. After a day of heightened military tensions — with shells fired in Voronezh and Chechen fighters being dispatched to take on Wagner in Rostov — the uprising suddenly fizzled out in the evening. Ultimately, Moscow appeared an improbably ambitious target for Prigozhin and Russian regular forces appeared unable to do much to counter Prigozhin in the south.
Always take the deal! Tapping the same sign I tapped yesterday, Machiavelli warning of mercenaries and their grandiose kayfabe.
