The message behind Putin's Wagner meeting

Russian President Vladimir Putin's "vertical of power" - the way in which the entire structure of Russian political power rests on one man - has undergone profound stress testing in the wake of the Wagner mercenary group's aborted march on Moscow in June.

But everything is now business as usual, and the remnants of Wagner are back in the government's control, if Kremlin messaging is to be believed.

In a televised meeting Friday, Putin met with Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and former Wagner commander Andrey Troshev, according to a partial transcript published by the Kremlin.

The meeting was held in a long-familiar format. Putin was seated at the head of a conference table with briefing papers and notes, making some general remarks before settling down to official business. The language was sober, competent and relatively substance-free: It could have been a routine meeting with a regional governor to discuss economic plans, at least judging by the official readout.

But unpack the language, and Putin's Friday meeting appeared to put a reassuring gloss on the Russian government's attempt to bring the mercenary group to heel. Troshev - who goes by the call sign, 'Sedoy,' meaning 'grey hair' - is the man Putin tapped to run the mercenary outfit after its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin's dramatic fall from grace.

After leading the group's insurrection this summer and then accepting an apparent deal to end it, Prigozhin died in late August when his private jet plummeted from the skies over Russia's Tver region. But the damage that Prigozhin did to Putin's image of infallibility has lingered.

So Putin on Friday did one of the things he does best: Delving into the minutiae of governing.