Why Did Putin Let Prigozhin Walk Away?

The same government that has been slaughtering Ukrainian civilians for more than a year because it claims NATO baddies are too close to its borders allowed its own rogue mercenary boss to shoot down military helicopters on Saturday and, according to state media, kill several soldiers before calmly waltzing away to a new life in Belarus.

The Kremlin even publicly guaranteed that Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin had President Vladimir Putin’s “word” he could safely leave the country—after conveniently having criminal charges against him dropped.

So why is Prigozhin so untouchable? Or is the Kremlin simply biding its time to deal with him in a less public manner?

Read more at The Daily Beast.