Putin appeared paralyzed and unable to act in first hours of rebellion

Many on the local level could not believe the Wagner rebellion could be happening without some degree of agreement with the Kremlin, the security officials said

The other side of ruling with an iron fist and micromanaging people. If you stop doing that, these people then just think this is all part of what is supposed happen and are unable to act on their own without explicit orders.

Word is they were also drunk off their asses, which probably correlates with 0 ideological buy-in.
I think there were a lot of players up and down the ranks waiting to see which way the wind blew before casting for any given side.
With so many concerns that the coup had backing from either Putin or other power blocs, a whole lot of side players would have wanted to back a winning pony and were waiting on early outcomes. Equally, with Putin not providing decisive action, I'm sure that invited meaningful concerns that this was some sort of double-dealing or the beginning of a Putin-backed purge.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

True.
Nobody would rebel against a nicer guy.

Putin's aid: "Sir, the people... They are rebelling against you!"

Putin: "What? Why did they not just roll over and die like I thought they would? This is fucking up my plans! 😩"

Very scream queens -esque

How very Stalin-esque

He also died of cancer four times now.

The so called rebellion was planned. Now all of Wagner is in Bellarus, running drills close to the Polish border.

To what end? They were mercenary group operating under Moscow's auspices and Belarus is friendly and already being used as a staging post. If they wanted them there they'd just tell them to go there. This makes them look weak and drew troops out of Ukraine while they're actively trying to invade it.
- Intel from sources within the Bellarus government suggests that they need at least all of the Wagner personel to invade your mothers butt. Poland as a staging area is convenient.

Washington Post is an american propaganda outlet when it comes to foreign policy articles. You might as well be linking VOA or RT.
That whole mutiny is fishy AF. There were rumours Prigozhin was betrayed by his deputy and informed the Kremlin. The CIA said they knew a week in advance. There was only a minor skirmish between a jet and a convoy on the way to Moscow where 12 soldiers died.

I don't understand what happened there or how the guy who tried to overthrow the government is still walking free. I've never heard of this in history before. The whole thing smells.

It is silly to compare Voice of America (an excellent journalistic institution with a great reputation), to the Washington Post (overall pretty good), to Russia Times (literal state propaganda). These are all very different sources and painting them with the same brush is just factually incorrect.
Here's some research for you:
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/washington-post/
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/rt-news/
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/voice-of-america/
As for your second point, Trump is still walking free and he tried to overthrow the government. These things apparently do happen.
- your source says the VOA is a US government official news arm, you don't see how they might have a bias when reporting on Russia?
- For the love of god, listen to some Citations Needed and stop self-congratilating your media literacy because some fucking dork with a website tells you the New York Times and Washington Post aren't biased.
- Voice of America was put under the command of the USIA (US Information Agency) whose job was literally propaganda.
  The US archives state the following:
  306.2 Records of the International Information Administration (Department of State) 1945-53
  History: Office of the Coordinator of Information established as an independent agency by Presidential order, July 11, 1941, to collect and analyze information bearing upon national security. Foreign Information Service established within OCOI to oversee shortwave propaganda broadcasts (Voice of America, VOA),
  https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/306.html
  I think that definitively proves you wrong.
  Will this make you do one ounce of self-criticism or re-evaluate how you view the world? I sincerely doubt it.
- mediabiasfactcheck, the site that squashes two complex spectrums (left vs right, unbiased vs biased) into a one dimensional line, making no distinction between centrism and being unbiased.
- You don't think critically about mediabiasfactcheck?
  Voice of America was created to promote American propaganda, it's literally the US propaganda outlet. You're a shill.
I'm dying at everyone going "Um actually the Freedom Eagle Burger Institute for Freedom says that VoA is unbiased. Five Pinocchios."
- Thank you for making it more blatant. I still don't think they'll get it.
This will sound catty, but it's not intended as such: do you have any news outlets you view as pretty close to reasonable/down-the-middle (if that's even possible)? I don't disagree about WaPo, I'm just curious what others read.
- I'm not exactly with the other guy, but it's extremely important to realize that ALL sources are biased. The Washington post and the New York Times both function as propaganda. They often serve as the mouthpiece of the United States Department of State or Defense, and are happy to cultivate public support for military conflicts that are in the interest of the American ruling class.
  This is well documented in the book Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky. You can also listen to the podcast Citations Needed to gain a better understanding about how this works in the modern day.
  An example you may be readily familiar with is the Iraq War, in which US government officials repeatedly lied to the public and started a meaningless war, without any real journalistic pushback. This lead to an atrocity affecting millions.
- I read the CBC for international news and that has served me pretty well. Canada doesn't really have a strong international position to introduce bias in (other than being a Western country and all the biases inherent in that). In cases where Canada does have a stake (typically regarding trade with the US/China), I read something from Reuters/AP/Bloomberg because wire services tend to be less biased in general. Alternatively, BBC is decent for news that don't relate to ex-colonies. For a non-Western perspective, Al Jazeera is pretty alright. For a US-perspective, the NYT is alright too.
  Every media outlet is biased. Typically, you get less bias as you stray further away from people who can directly or indirectly profit off of portraying an event in a certain way.
  Wherever your privately-owned media source is domiciled will have a bias towards that country in international relations. For example, WaPo will have a strong bias towards the US in anything relating to a conflict between the US and Russia. So will the NYT. They will never report objectively on these events because reporting with bias will get more people to agree with their writing and (eventually) lead to greater profit. These companies are profit-oriented, so this is to be expected.
  For example, compare [https://www.thestar.com/business/trump-threatens-20-per-cent-tariff-on-canadian-softwood-lumber/article_f0bfee67-83ce-5968-8135-4a5eca0c8fb4.html?] and [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/us/politics/lumber-tariff-canada-trump.html]
  This is, in general, different for government-owned media such as VoA, RT, and CCTV. These entities are controlled by the government (and, in fact, often allow for direct executive control by the President). Naturally, we expect these to be far more biased, particularly for countries that are on polar opposites of the geopolitical spectrum such as the US and Russia. These entities will generally avoid criticizing the ruling party.
  Al Jazeera would fall into the above category, except Qatar isn't exactly relevant on the global stage... it doesn't matter if Al Jazeera never criticizes the Emir because nobody cares about the Emir.
  In contrast, government-funded public broadcasters such as CBC and BBC are typically not controlled by the government and operate as entirely independent entities without direct executive control. They do often criticize the government and the country and are not driven by profit. These broadcasters still have bias towards the country they are domiciled in, but to a lesser degree than privately-owned media as they lack the profit incentive. They also have less bias than government-owned media, as can be shown by their willingness to talk shit about the government.
  [https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justin-trudeau-we-charity-margaret-trudeau-alexandre-1.5645781] [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-65961889]
  However, they are still biased by the people who work there, leading to the CBC to have a slight Liberal-leaning bias while the BBC has a slight Conservative-leaning bias. Notably (and perhaps most amusingly), they are criticized as being biased from all parties, which may be the strongest argument for their impartiality.
  All this is to say that all media is biased. However, you can avoid a decent amount of bias by selecting news entities that are not based in a country that would have a strong opinion either way. For example, while the US has many issues with Russia, Canada/the UK/Qatar do not (other than the basic Western/European/Middle Eastern biases). They are likely to have more moderate and fair reporting on the conflict which, while still biased, are likely to be closer to the facts.
  Basically, I wouldn't trust any US reporting on Russia/China, nor would I trust any Russian nor Chinese reporting on the US. The reporters are always going to pander to their target demographic. Instead, I would look for international reporting from countries with strong freedom of speech protections that are not as strongly implicated in the issue.
- No not really unfortunately, I think every media outlet is biased. Le Monde Diplomatique is my favourite media outlet and I still think it's biased. I'm critical of all media when I read it and I think that's the only way to be in the age of disinformation. It's really funny to me that people rely on websites to tell them if media outlet is biased or unbiased because it's apparent that those sites themselves are biased.
  IMO It's better to read theories, different takes on history, and then approach new news under different mental frameworks when trying to assess the reality of situations. But generally a political economic framework (ie power structures) is how I approach news articles for international events.
I don't understand what happened there or how the guy who tried to overthrow the government is still walking free.
You know you don't understand what happened there, but you still assume he tried to overthrow the government. That's highly implausible. A much simpler explanation is that he wanted to quit on his own terms before it's too late, but needed the other party to start listening and, ideally, enter the negotiations with a handicap. Judging by the reports that he got his audience (a claim too embarrassing to make up for no gain), that seemed to work.
That's a big pitfall with analysing Russia: rationalizing stuff happening there to fit a reasonable plan, or at least a coherent overarching narrative, while the plethora of actors constituting Russia couldn't care less about your narrative. They've been improvising with no clear plan for at least a year, on all levels, and it's a miracle we still occasionally see patterns in their collective actions.
- Yeah those are fair points. I'm not an expert on Russia it's a really complex country.
I don't know how you can admit that you have zero understanding of the subject and attack the article in the same post. It's quite good and aligns well with many other sources of information and analysis.
- I think you misread my post.