The latest on the aftermath of the armed rebellion declared by Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin:
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There are still no reports of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin arriving in Belarus after he reached a deal with the Kremlin to go into exile and ended his rebellion.
Many other questions remained unanswered on Sunday morning, including whether Prigozhin would be joined in exile by any of his Wagner Group’s troops and what role, if any, he might have there.
Prigozhin, who sent out a series of audio and video updates during his revolt, has gone silent since the Kremlin announced that the deal had been brokered for him to end his march toward Moscow and leave Russia.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS:
Russian mercenary leader’s exile ends revolt but leaves questions about Putin’s power
The mercenary chief who urged an uprising against Russia’s generals has long ties to Putin
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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The U.S.-based think tank Institute for the Study of War says the Kremlin “faces a deeply unstable equilibrium” after the deal to end the rebellion by Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group.
The institute said that the optics of Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko having played a role in halting a military advance on Moscow were “humiliating” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It said that “the Lukashenko-negotiated deal is a short-term fix, not a long-term solution, and Prigozhin’s rebellion exposed severe weaknesses” in the Kremlin and the Russian Defense Ministry. The Kremlin's apparent surprise at Prigozhin's rebellion also doesn't reflect well on the FSB, Russia's domestic intelligence service, it added.
The ISW noted that Prigozhin “consistently escalated” his rhetoric against the Russian Defense Ministry before starting his revolt “and Putin failed to mitigate this risk.”
