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,...