I have read from more than one analytician that the situation is rather weird - that even wth the Russian army being in the sore state it is, the fact Prigozhin took Rostov and Voronezh so easily and is now theoretically about 6 hours from Moscow, that there must be some kind of support for him from the higher circles or from the Russian's secret services and that the defense might be intentionally underpowered.
Putting my conspiracy hat on, I wouldn't put it outside the realm of possibility that he might be used as the "cleaner", to do the drty work and help to depose Putin... and then he'd get shot in the back and a transfer of power, including the renewal of relations with the West and, in fact, the rest of the world.
(Is this Prigozhin being compared to Ernst Röhm? I guess it is Prigozhin being compared to Ernst Röhm)
Nobody in their right mind would want this sociopath leading a mercenary army of criminals and barely human beasts to be anywhere near any real power. If there is to be a new leadership in Russia, he won't be it. This is not a backwoods African country, here you have more sources of political, military and financial power, even in such a failed, dysfunctional, cleptocracy state. Which might be what is happening now with Putin.
You know, like at the end of a spy movie, like the Bourne trilogy - "Vlad, you were playing a dangerous game, you overplayed your hand, now it's time to clean up your mess. Starting with you."