Vladimir V. Putin is known for his tight control over the news media in Russia. His onetime ally, the Wagner military group founder Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, is himself the owner of a conservative media outlet and a flamboyant showman on social media.
But it was an unlikely figure who emerged with a public relations victory in the wake of Mr. Prigozhin’s mutiny: the longtime dictator of Belarus, the neighboring country that is firmly in Moscow’s orbit.
The Belarusian leader, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, is viewed largely as the Kremlin’s docile satrap. But on Sunday, he took credit for brokering an agreement between Mr. Putin and Mr. Prigozhin, averting a scenario that the Russian leader had compared to the civil war that followed the Revolution of 1917.
Now Mr. Lukashenko, an international pariah, is trying to use the P.R. victory to burnish his credentials as a credible statesman, mediator — and above all, loyal ally to Mr. Putin.
Late on Saturday evening, as fears were heightening over a potential clash between Wagner troops, who were within 125 miles of Moscow, and Russian soldiers, Mr. Lukashenko’s press service issued an announcement: The Belarusian president had found “an absolutely profitable and acceptable option for resolving the situation.”
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Prigozhin announced that a column of his fighters that had ridden about 500 miles from southern Russia was turning around and going home.
As part of the deal, the criminal case opened against Mr. Prigozhin for organizing an armed insurrection would be dropped, Wagner troops would not face charges and Mr. Prigozhin would leave Russia for Belarus, the Kremlin’s spokesman said. His whereabouts on Sunday was not known.
What, if any, promises were made on behalf of the Kremlin, Wagner or Mr. Lukashenko remain unclear. But Mr. Lukashenko’s state-controlled media quickly switched into high gear to portray his efforts to defuse the conflict as evidence of statesmanship.
The state news agency,…