As Vladimir Putin was welcoming African heads of state to a summit in St. Petersburg, renegade warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin stole the limelight in the president¡¯s home city, schmoozing with visiting officials and lauding a military coup in Niger.
The Wagner mercenary group leader was supposed to go into exile in neighboring Belarus under a deal to end last month¡¯s armed mutiny that shook Putin¡¯s rule and killed about a dozen air force crew as his troops advanced to within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow.
Instead, he¡¯s been traveling freely in and out of Russia and was invited to talks with Putin in the Kremlin together with his top Wagner commanders only days after the revolt.
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