from the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal. This is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello and welcome to the Free Expression podcast with me, Jerry Baker from the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

If you're not already a subscriber to Free Expression, please do sign up wherever you get your podcasts.

This week, Russia. What exactly is going on there?

Now, Winston Churchill famously described Russia as a riddle in a mystery wrapped inside an enigma.

That description has probably never been more apt than it is right now. The abortive

mutiny led by restaurateur turned gangster, turned mercenary leader Y Yvgeny Prygosen last weekend,

has raised more questions than answers about the condition of one of the world's most important

nuclear powers, a nation at war, no less. The more we learn about the attempted putch,

the more curious, it seems. What was the aim of the Wagner Group's leader? Was he trying to seize

power for himself, or just force a change in Russia's military leadership?

How much inside assistance did he have from the military?

Why did he back off when his moment of opportunity seemed to be at hand?

And why, despite his promise to punish the mutineers, did Vladimir Putin wind up striking a deal with

progosion that, at least on the face of it, seems to leave the Wagner leader at liberty.

Has Putin himself been weakened by the events of the last week? And what does it all mean for the war in

Ukraine? And the United States continuing support for Kiev's counteroffensive? And where, of course,

does it leave the Russia-China alliance that

Putin has forged with Xi Jinping? Well, to try to answer all these questions and more, I'm joined by

former U.S. Ambassador Moscow and Beijing, John Huntsman. Huntsman has served in every single

U.S. administration of both parties since that of Ronald Reagan, not including the current one of Joe

Biden. He was governor of Utah

...