Instead, the Kremlin on Monday tried to provide some clarity, after French newspaper Liberation reported a meeting between Putin and Prigozhin on June 29. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, confirmed in a conference call with journalists the meeting had taken place. I can’t tell you more.”It is important to pause and conjure just how surreal the meeting Peskov is describing sounds. But this is in keeping with the Kremlin’s bid to contain the fallout from Putin’s most dangerous weekend yet. If Prigozhin has been forgiven – as the Kremlin meeting might suggest - then why is there no public acknowledgement of that, a bid to at the least file down the fangs of stray Wagner fighters?

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Persons: Yevgeny Prigozhin’s, Alexander Lukashenko’s, Putin, Prigozhin, Dmitry Peskov, ” Peskov, –, Wagner, Lukashenko, Mikhail Khodorkovsky –, Sergey Surovikin, Valery Gerasimov Organizations: CNN, Kremlin, Russia’s, French, Liberation, Defense Ministry Locations: Russia’s Rostov, Belarusian, St . Petersburg, Belarus, Russian, Derbent, Kremlin, Russia, Ukraine