Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the private army of inmate recruits and other mercenaries that has fought some of the deadliest battles in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is in Belarus after his abortive armed rebellion against the Kremlin, Belarus’s president said on Tuesday.
The exile to Belarus of the 62-year-old owner of the Wagner Group was part of the deal that ended the short-lived mutiny in Russia. He and some of his troops would be welcome to stay “for some time” at their own expense, President Alexander Lukashenko said.
The Russian defence ministry said preparations are under way for Wagner to hand over its heavy weapons to the Russian military.
Mr Prigozhin had said his troops were preparing to turn over their weapons ahead of a July 1 deadline for them to sign contracts to serve under the Russian military’s command.
Russian authorities also said on Tuesday that they have closed a criminal investigation into the uprising and are pressing no charges against Mr Prigozhin or his troops after the negotiated deal.
The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said its investigation found that those involved in the mutiny, which lasted less than 24 hours, “ceased activities directed at committing the crime”.
Still, Russian president Vladimir Putin appeared to set the stage for charges of financial wrongdoing against an affiliated organisation owned by Mr Prigozhin.
He told a military gathering that Mr Prigozhin’s Concord Group earned 80 billion roubles (£730 million) from a contract to provide the military with food, and that Wagner had received over 86 billion roubles (over £790 million) in the past year for wages and additional items.
“I hope that while doing so they didn’t steal anything or stole not so much,” Mr Putin said, adding that authorities would look closely at Concord’s contract.
For years, Prigozhin has had lucrative catering contracts with the Russian government. Police who searched his St Petersburg office over the weekend said they found four billion roubles (£37 million) in trucks outside, according to media reports confirmed by the Wagner boss. He said the money was intended to pay soldiers’ families.
Over the weekend, the Kremlin had pledged not to prosecute Mr Prigozhin and his fighters after he stopped the revolt on Saturday, even though Putin had branded them as traitors and authorities rushed to fortify Moscow’s defences as the mutineers approached the capital.
The charge of mounting an armed mutiny is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Prigozhin escaping prosecution poses a stark contrast to how the Kremlin has treated those staging anti-government protests in Russia, where many opposition figures have gotten long sentences in notoriously harsh penal colonies.
Mr Prigozhin’s specific whereabouts were not known on Tuesday.
The series of stunning events in recent days constitutes the gravest threat so far to Mr Putin’s grip on power amid the 16-month-old war in Ukraine. In addresses Monday and Tuesday, Putin has sought to project stability.
Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for 29 years while relying on Russian subsidies and support, portrayed the uprising as the latest development in a clash between Mr Prigozhin and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu.
Their long-simmering personal feud has at times boiled over, and Mr Prigozhin has said the revolt aimed to unseat Mr Shoigu, not Mr Putin.
Mr Lukashenko said he put Belarus’ armed forces on a combat footing as the mutiny unfolded. He said he had urged Putin not to be hasty in his response, adding that a conflict with Wagner could have spiraled out of control.
Like Mr Putin, Mr Lukashenko portrayed the Ukraine war as an existential threat, saying: “If Russia collapses, we all will perish under the debris.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov would not disclose any details about the Kremlin’s deal with the Wagner chief. He said only that Putin had provided Mr Prigozhin with “certain guarantees”, with the aim of avoiding a “worst-case scenario”.
The mercenaries shot down at least six Russian helicopters and a military communications plane as they advanced on Moscow, killing at least a dozen airmen, according to Russian news reports.
The defence ministry did not release information about casualties.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who challenged Mr Lukashenko in a 2020 election that was widely seen as fraudulent and triggered mass protests, said Wagner troops will threaten the country and its neighbours.
“Belarusians don’t welcome war criminal Prigozhin,” she told the Associated Press. “If Wagner sets up military bases on our territory, it will pose a new threat to our sovereignty and our neighbours.”
