RUSSIAN ROULETTE

Warlord orders tanks to pull back | Putin has survived coup bid. for now | Wagner leader's still calling shots

- SIAN HEWITT

MAD Vladimir Putin was last night clinging on to power as rebel mercenary forces halted their advance on Moscow.

Thousands of Wagner Group troops led by Yevgeny Prigozhin marched on the Russian capital and warned Putin his days were numbered.

The ruthless paramilitary boss said: “Putin made the wrong choice. All the worse for him. Soon we will have a new president.”

But last night, with his forces less than 200km from Moscow, Prigozhin made a sensational U-turn. After talks with Mad Vlad ally Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, he announced his troops were returning to base.