Putin's Authority Tested as Wagner Insurrection Ends in Truce with Prigozhin.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russian mercenary group Wagner, ordered his forces to halt their advance on Moscow and return to their bases in Ukraine. The insurrection, which began a day earlier, heralded the most serious challenge to Putin’s leadership during his nearly 24 years at the top of Russia's power structure and comes at a critical time for the Kremlin's war effort in Ukraine. Putin vowed to punish all "traitors" involved in the Wagner action, which he said was a "stab in the back" in the face of what he characterized as a Western threat to Russian sovereignty.