 Putin is still worried about Wagner mercenaries, even Lukashenko cannot reassure him. The Institute for the Study of War, ISW, has noted that the situation with the Wagner Group Rebellion and the Kremlin's inability to respond promptly to it both indicate Russian President Vladimir Putin's lack of confidence in his ability to rally the Russian elite. Russian President Vladimir Putin continued to express concern about potential threats from the Wagner Group and its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin during Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's extended visit to St. Petersburg. The ISW said Putin's decision to prolong the meeting with Lukashenko probably indicates that the Russian President is still worried about Wagner mercenaries and it seems that Lukashenko could not reassure him. The ISW also said that Lukashenko probably wants to use his power over the Wagner Group to obtain concessions from Putin. In particular, Lukashenko tried to use Putin's concerns throughout the visit to Russia to achieve favorable terms in Belarusian-Russian relations. While rejecting Putin's demands for closer integration into the Union state and support for Russia's war in Ukraine. In addition, the ISW also draws attention to the fact that the leadership is trying to reduce the security vacuum created after the Wagner Group's departure by creating formalized but decentralized regional military enterprises based on the Federation's subjects. The Russian state Duma adopted on the 25th of July in the second and third readings amendments to the federal law regulating weapons circulation allowing the Russian subjects heads to create specialized state unitary enterprises. The ISW noted the amendments would allow Putin to set up state enterprises on a temporary basis and then close them after which those enterprises would have to hand over all small arms and other weapons to the Russian Defense Ministry within one month. The Kremlin is probably trying to balance two competing security demands including the need for combat ready formations to fulfill the functions left by the Wagner Group after its armed rebellion and redeployment to Belarus and the desire not to create systemic threats to the Russian state that Wagner Group's independence has generated.