TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin led an armed rebellion against the Russian military — and walked free. Others who merely voiced criticism against the Kremlin weren’t so lucky.
On Tuesday, Russia’s main domestic security agency, the FSB, said it had dropped the criminal investigation into last week’s revolt, with no charges against Prigozhin or any of the other participants, even though about a dozen Russian troops were killed in clashes.
The Kremlin had promised not to prosecute Prigozhin after reaching an agreement with him that he would halt the uprising and retreat to neighboring Belarus. That came even though President Vladimir Putin vowed to punish those behind the rebellion.
That is what that tells me. You don't attempt to assassinate and then imprison Alexei Navalny and walk back your threat to punish Prigozhin. The U.S. has convicted over 800 people in its Jan. 6 coup d'etat and that coup's Prigozhin, Trump, is up next. Putin couldn't make good on his threat because he doesn't have the support and Prigozhin does.
