Putin cut deal with Wagner ‘to save his skin,’ MI6 chief says in rare speech

It was a rare moment when the publicly visible Kremlin matched the reality behind closed doors.

That is according to the head of Britain’s Mi6, who in a rare speech in Prague, gave the first confirmation from western intelligence that the boss of private military group Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin did indeed strike a deal with Putin to end his advance on Moscow during the failed rebellion of June 24. And he had, it seemed, been welcomed into the Kremlin to meet Putin days later.

The Mi6 chief, known as C, also expressed some bafflement at the tremors around the Kremlin during that weekend, and the speed in which loyalties were spurned and returned.

“If you look at Putin’s behaviors on that day”, Richard Moore said of June 24, “Prigozhin started off I think, as a traitor at breakfast. He had been pardoned by supper and then a few days later, he was invited for tea. So, there are some things and even the chief of MI6 finds that a little bit difficult to try and interpret, in terms of who’s in and who’s out.”