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Many people are closely watching the several thousand Wagner fighters based in pro-Kremlin Belarus, to see how they react. But it is not easy finding reliable information on them.

On Telegram, Wagner-linked channels have mourned their commanders’ deaths but put out no other information about what happens next.

This is expected, given they usually publish propaganda burnishing the group’s intimidating reputation and exaggerating its reach.

There are other Russian Telegram channels that publish information about the group, but which have no observable link to it.

So some claims circulating - for example, that Wagner has initiated a backup plan for its leaders' deaths – cannot be trusted.

In Putin's second video contribution to the Brics summit, his big focus was on Africa, going back to his mantra that Russia helps Africa's neediest countries, while the West merely pumps resources out of them in some kind of modern form of revamped colonialism.

He reminded his audience of Russia's offer of 25-50,000 tonnes of free grain supplies to six African nations, including Mali, Zimbabwe and Central African Republic.

It's all part of a bid to prop up Russian ambitions on the continent, when the war in Ukraine is pushing African leaders away. Only 17 African heads of state took part in last month's Russia-Africa summit, down from 43 only four years before.

But another key element of Putin's Africa policy is the thousands of Wagner mercenaries embedded in a number of African states. Wagner is widely accused of plundering those countries for their mineral wealth, so it is a bit rich to complain of Western colonialism.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

If you were looking for a first comment from Russia's president on the reported demise of Yevgeny Prigozhin, there really was nothing to see in this brief video address.

Putin stuck to his script, focusing on the expansion of the Brics group "to ensure the influence of Brics in the world grows".

Not much of a surprise that there was no mention of his former ally-turned-mutineer. It may have been the elephant in the room but this was not the forum for domestic concerns.

Of course, Putin was not actually in the room in Johannesburg. He stayed in Russia because of an arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine issued by the International Criminal Court.