2023-07-06 12:57:49
The President of Belarus broke the news. The Russian government responded: “We are not following the movements” of the mercenary leader. “We don’t have the time or desire to do it.”
The head of the Russian mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who on June 24 he staged a failed mutiny against power in Moscow, is in Saint Petersburg and the troops of his Wagner Group are still in the camps where they have been staying since before that rebellion, the president of Belarus assured this Thursday.
Alexander Lukashenko helped broker the deal whereby Prigozhin ended his frustrated rebellion in exchange for security guarantees for himself and his soldiers. The pact allowed for the transfer of both Prigozhin and his troops to Belarus. But would the leader of the mercenaries never have reached Minsk?
The details of the agreement reached with Lukashenko to defuse the mutiny or about the whereabouts and future of Wagner’s boss, as well as that of his private army, have never been clear. It was even said that the troops of Wagner and Prigozhin were in Belarus. And that the head of the mercenaries was “in a windowless hotel” in Minsk for fear of being killed.
Alexander Lukashenko helped broker the deal that ended Prigozhin’s failed June 24 rebellion. Photo: Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)
The Kremlin was always silent. Until this Friday, when he said that he is not interested in following in Prigozhin’s footsteps.
What did Lukashenko say?
Lukashenko told foreign journalists on Thursday that the head of the mercenaries was in St. Petersburg while his troops were in their camps.
the Belarusian president did not specify the location of the camps. Before the revolt, Prigozhin’s mercenaries They fought alongside Russian forces in the Ukraine.
Lukashenko assured that his government offered Wagner, the private military contractor founded by Prigozhin, the use of the Belarusian military camps, but indicated that the group has not made a decision yet.
Asked if Prigozhin and his mercenaries were going to move to Belarus, Lukashenko responded with evasions pointing out that this would depend on the decisions made by the tycoon and the Russian government. The leader does not believe that Wagner’s presence is going to destabilize his country.
the riot
During their brief rebellion, Prigozhin and his men from Wagner quickly took Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, capturing the military headquarters in the city before marching on the capital, Moscow, in what Prigozhin described as a “march of justice” to overthrow the Russian defense minister and the chief of the General Staff.
Prigozhin assured that his forces were within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow. when he ordered to halt the advance under the agreement brokered by Lukashenko.
Details were revealed, through Lukashenko himself, of his marathon calls with Moscow and him with Prigozhin to defuse the mutiny and “avoid a bloodbath.”
The failed rebellion was the biggest threat to President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power and exposed the Kremlin’s weaknesses as well as eroding the president’s authority.
Fighters of the Wagner Group they found hardly any resistance: they vandalized roadblocks on occasions and shot down at least six helicopters and a command plane, killing at least 10 personnel.
Lukashenko’s remarks came after Russian media reported that Prigozhin hashad been seen in Saint Petersburg, the second largest city in the country. It was considered that his presence there was protected by agreements that allowed him to close their affairs in the city.
According to Russian press reports, Prigozhin got the cash back confiscated during the search of his offices and a small arsenal of weapons he kept at his home in St. Petersburg.
Russian online newspaper Fontanka posted videos and photos of the opulent Prigozhin mansion and some of his belongings, including a collection of wigs of various colors. In addition, she posted a series of selfies in which she appeared posing in foreign wigs and uniforms, in an apparent reflection of the group’s operations in Syria and various African countries.
The Kremlin’s reaction
The Kremlin assured this Thursday that does not follow the displacements of Wagner’s boss.
“No, we do not follow their movements, we have neither the time nor the inclination to do so,” said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov, at his daily press conference.
Peskov did not want to answer the question about whether Prigozhin is violating the conditions of the pact reached with the Kremlin at the end of June and insisted that at this stage he cannot add anything more to what has already been said.
Agencies
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