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A few weeks ago, foreign media published a series on a blog called "Putin: The Man and His Motives."
One of the questions put to experts was why Vladimir Putin would invite Yevgeny Prigozhin for tea after the short-lived rebellion of the Wagner group.
The answers we received may provide some interesting insight into what may be happening now...
"The meeting makes more sense if you think of Putin's Russia as akin to a mafia organization. There is no rule of law, only informal agreements between rival groups mediated by Putin as a sort of godfather figure," said Professor David Lewis, an expert in global politics at the University of Exeter.
He added that it would make sense for Putin to broker an "informal deal" to keep Prigozhin alive and a small Wagner force intact, but keep him under the Kremlin's heel so he could do Moscow's bidding in parts of Africa and elsewhere.
Philip Short, journalist and author of Putin: His Life and Times, agrees that the Russian president "still sees a role" for Prigozhin, at least for now.
He says that when Putin was deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, he "had to deal with criminal types like Prigozhin, and he found ways to deal with them, ways to use them."
"The system that he has built as president relies on playing off one faction against another, one group against another, so that no one group becomes too powerful and can actually threaten the central government," Short added .
The last British defense attaché in Moscow, John Foreman, said the Russian president had appeared "concerned" and "upset" as the rebellion unfolded.
But Prigozhin's meeting with Putin would have been like a commander-in-chief "bowing his knee before his master, begging for forgiveness and pledging his loyalty."
However, it appears that Prigozhin's future prospects are likely to hang in the balance.
"He has powerful enemies, Prigozhin, and what happens to him in the medium term I think is different than what happens to him in the short term," Foreman said.
Meanwhile, Professor Lewis added: "In any case, Prigozhin should not relax too much. Putin's career suggests that he strongly believes in the old adage - that revenge is a dish best served cold."
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