INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Wagner mercenaries were returning to base on Sunday as their mutinous leader agreed to go into exile after President Vladimir Putin was
forced to accept an amnesty deal.The agreement appears to end the immediate threat that Yevgeny Prigozhin's private army could storm
Moscow, but analysts said Wagner's revolt had exposed a fragility in Putin's rule.Security measures imposed under an "anti-terrorism
leaving the region and movement restrictions were being lifted.The long-standing feud between Prigozhin and military top brass over the
conduct of the Russian operation in Ukraine boiled over on Saturday when Wagner forces seized the base in Rostov-on-Don and embarked on a
decades.'Russian blood'Within hours of Prigozhin's surprise announcement that his forces would return to base to avoid "spilling Russian
early Sunday, Wagner had pulled out of Rostov-on-Don, the regional governor said, but before they left dozens of residents were seen
cheering them and chanting "Wagner! Wagner!"Ukraine reveled in the chaos, stepping up its own counteroffensive against Russian forces in the
country and mocking Putin's apparent humiliation.Analysts also said the deal had exposed weakness in the Russian president's grip on
power.Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said he had negotiated the truce with Prigozhin
Moscow thanked him, but observers noted that an intervention by Lukashenko, usually seen as Putin's very junior partner, was itself an
embarrassment.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said the criminal case against Prigozhin will be dropped and he would go to Belarus,
while members of Wagner who had taken part in what authorities dubbed an "armed rebellion" would not be prosecuted.In Ukraine, President
Volodymyr Zelensky's senior aide Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted: "Prigozhin humiliated Putin/the state and showed that there is no longer a
opportunity" as the nation pressed its long-awaited counter-offensive.Shock troopsIn addition to providing some of the most successful shock
troops fighting in Ukraine, Prigozhin's outfit conducts several mercenary operations in the Middle East and West Africa.These missions are
seen to have the Kremlin's backing and amount to Russian influence operations to curry favor with African governments and win access to
Today, it is clear."Yesterday's call for unity made by representatives of the elites only confirmed this
Behind these is a crisis of institutions and fears for themselves," he said.He noted that Russian leaders would be concerned by the sight of
civilian onlookers applauding Wagner units in Rostov."Putin's position is weakened," he said
"Putin underestimated Prigozhin, just as he underestimated Zelensky before that ..
He could have stopped this with a phone call to Prigozhin but he did not."The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank,
said Lukashenko's direct role in negotiating the truce would be "humiliating to Putin.""The Kremlin now faces a deeply unstable
equilibrium," it said."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 Russian MoD."The United States and its Western allies, who back Ukraine, were tight-lipped about the
revolt amid concerns that Putin's control over the nuclear-armed country could be slipping.Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told
Beijing on Sunday, China's foreign ministry said, but released few details about what was discussed beyond "international and regional
statehood and to us as a nation ..
Extravagant ambitions and personal interests led to treason," Putin said, referring to Prigozhin, who began building his power base as a
Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, for under-supplying his units.
