MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: The Punishment for Treason in Russia Is… NOTHING? Really?

Before leading his armed rebellion against Putin’s defense chief, Prigozhin went even further, calling into question the entire justification for the war. “The Ministry of Defense is trying to deceive the public and the president and spin the story that there were insane levels of aggression from the Ukrainian side and that they were going to attack us together with the whole NATO block,” he said on Telegram last Friday.

And then Prigozhin sacked the Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov-on-Don before ordering an armored column to head north toward Moscow. Putin himself went on national television to denounce Prigozhin’s mutiny as “treason” and vowed to crush the “armed uprising.”

For reasons still unknown, Prigozhin backed down on Saturday, just 24 hours into Wagner’s effort to forcibly unseat Shoigu and others in the Ministry of Defense. He claimed to want to “avoid bloodshed.”

But then something very strange happened, or maybe what’s strange is what didn’t happen.

Much more at the link.