RIGA, Latvia - Before Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin sent his private army marching on Moscow this weekend, he told Russians that for the country to stand a chance of winning its war in Ukraine, it must become a "North Korea-style" state with the death penalty in force.
Still, whatever Prigozhin was trying to accomplish with the short-lived rebellion, he probably did not intend to get exiled to Belarus, a dictatorship even more isolated than Russia, often called the North Korea of Europe, where he is now supposed to go following a deal to avoid arrest and prosecution.