Putin is struggling to solve his Prigozhin problem

It’s satisfying when a jigsaw piece slots into place. Today we heard that Wagner leader Evgeny Prigozhin met Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin just a few days after his abortive mutiny of 23-24 June. That detail helps clear up some of the confusion of this past week.

How come Prigozhin has been at liberty in Russia? We were told he would be going directly into exile in Belarus. Why is the Federal Security Service (FSB) apparently no longer seeking to arrest him? Is his Wagner mercenary army being disbanded or not? 

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has now acknowledged that, on 29 June, Prigozhin was among 35 people invited to a three-hour meeting in Moscow held to discuss the war. Present was a cross-section of the military elite, as well as Prigozhin, who were treated to Putin’s ‘assessment of the company’s actions on the front’ and his take on ‘the events of 24 June.’ Wagner fighters were reportedly offered ‘further options for [their] employment and further combat use,’ so long as they were ‘ready to continue to fight’ for Russia.