Post-mutiny Moscow descends into factional murk

TWO DECADES ago , the violent ex-convict and restaurateur who heads Wagner, a Russian mercenary group, published a fairy tale he had written with his children. In it, a band of friends rescue a shrinking king by blowing a magic flute. At first he grows too fast, smashing a hole in the palace ceiling, before they bring him back down to size. “A very dangerous toy,” says the king, taking away the flute.