Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of a jailed private army of recruits and other mercenaries who fought some of the deadliest battles in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, escaped prosecution for his failed armed uprising against the Kremlin and arrived in Belarus on Tuesday. The deportation of the 62-year-old owner of the Wagner Group was part of a deal that ended the short-lived uprising in Russia. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed that Prigozhin was in Belarus, and said that he and some of his troops were welcome to stay “for the time being” at their own expense.
Prigozhin has not been seen since Saturday, when he waved to well-wishers from a vehicle in the southern city of Rostov. He released an incriminating audio statement on Monday. On Tuesday morning, a private jet believed to be his took off from Rostov to an airbase southwest of the Belarus capital Minsk, according to Flightradar24 data.
Meanwhile, Moscow said Wagner’s troops fighting in Ukraine, numbering 25,000 according to Prigozhin, were preparing to hand over their heavy weapons to the Russian army. Prigozhin had said such a move was planned ahead of a July 1 deadline for his fighters to sign contracts to serve under Russia’s military command – which he opposed. Russian authorities also said on Tuesday that they have closed a criminal investigation into the rebellion and are not making any armed insurrection charges against Prigozhin or his followers.
Putin prepares to sue organization linked to Prigozhin
Nevertheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to be setting the stage for allegations of financial wrongdoing against an affiliated organization owned by Prigozhin. Putin told a military gathering that Prigozhin’s Concord group earned $941 million from contracts to provide food to the military, and that Wagner had received 86 billion rubles (over $1 billion) in pay and extras last year .
Putin said, “I hope they didn’t steal anything, or didn’t steal too much, while doing this.” He said officials would closely monitor Concorde’s contract.
Over the years, Prigozhin has enjoyed lucrative catering contracts with the Russian government. Police searching his St Petersburg office on Saturday said they found 4 billion rubles ($48 million) in trucks outside, according to media reports the Wagner boss confirmed. He said that the purpose of this money was to pay the families of the soldiers.
Wagner stopped the rebellion after negotiations
Prigozhin and his fighters quelled the uprising on Saturday, less than 24 hours after it began, and shortly after Putin, speaking on national TV, branded the rebel leaders, whom he did not name, as traitors. The charge of inciting armed rebellion was punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Prigozhin’s avoidance of prosecution, on at least one charge of armed insurgency, stands in stark contrast to Moscow’s treatment of its critics, including those leading anti-government protests in Russia, where many opposition figures face notoriously harsh punitive measures. Long sentences have been given in the colonies.
Lukashenko said some of Wagner’s fighters are now in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, which Russia illegally annexed last September. The series of shocking events in recent days poses the most serious threat to Putin’s grip on power since the 16-month-old war in Ukraine, and he again acknowledged the threat on Tuesday, saying that The result could have been a civil war.
Putin thanks his soldiers for averting rebellion
In addresses this week, Putin has sought to project stability and demonstrate authority. At a Kremlin ceremony on Tuesday, the president walked down the red-carpeted steps of the 15th-century white-stone Palace of Facets to address soldiers and law enforcement officers and thank them for their work in quelling the uprising.
In yet another show of business as usual, Russian media showed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in his military uniform, welcoming a visiting Cuban defense minister in a pompous ceremony. Prigozhin has said that his goal was to remove Shoigu and other military officers, not to stage a coup against Putin.
(with inputs from the agency)