Jon Karl Presses Blinken on Whether Putin is Really Granting Amnesty to Wagner Group: ‘Hard to Believe’ He’ll Let Them Walk

ABC News’ Jon Karl expressed deep skepticism that Vladimir Putin will allow Yevgeny Prigozhin to live after his leadership of the Wagner Group nearly sparked a civil war in Russia.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined Karl on This Week during a tour of the Sunday shows to address the fallout from the mercenary army’s threat to march on Moscow. This was before Prigozhin called off Wagner’s approach on the Russia capital, claiming he wanted to avoid bloodshed.

Even though the Russian government charged Prigozhin for “inciting an armed revolt,” the situation changed dramatically when the Kremlin announced they would drop the charges against him, Prigozhin would go into exile after negotiating a peace deal with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, and Wagner members would not be prosecuted for any involvement in the uprising. Karl brought all of this up to Blinken while remarking on Putin’s reputation of having his dissidents killed.

“It seems hard to believe Putin, who is known for executing his critics, would allow Prigozhin to move away as a free man [with] amnesty,” Karl said. This brought him to his question: “Is the rebellion really over?”

Blinken spoke of how Putin’s authority over Russia has been called into question with the nation’s various troubles. He emphasized that the situation points to the war in Ukraine being a “devastating, strategic failure for Putin,” and the uprising was not hugely surprising.

Karl pressed for specifics by asking “what happens” to Wagner — whether they’ll be exiled with Prigozhin, or assimilated into the Russian military.

“The short answer is we don’t know,” Blinken said, warning against speculation.

Watch above via ABC.