Yevgeny Prigoyine, who led a spectacular uprising in Russia, will leave the country for Belarus while criminal investigations against him are dropped, the Kremlin said on Saturday night, welcoming the agreement reached with Wagner’s leader “to avoid a bloodbath.”
• Also read: [EN DIRECT] Uprising of the leader of the Wagner group: A first “armed protest of this magnitude against Vladimir Putin”
• Also read: Russia’s weakness is “obvious,” says the Ukrainian president
• Also read: New offensive from Ukraine, Putin ‘very scared’: ‘It’s total chaos’
After leading an armed uprising for a whole day, the businessman finally ordered his men marching toward Moscow to “turn around” and “return to the camps” after mediation by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Mr. Prigojine “will go to Belarus,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced in the evening, vowing that Wagner boss “had the word of President” Vladimir Putin.
“The criminal case against him will be dropped,” he added, and “no one will pursue the fighters” who followed Mr. Prigoyine in his company, “given their merits at the front,” Ukrainians.
“Some of them will sign contracts with the Defense Department if they wish,” Mr. Peskov said without giving further details.
The Kremlin spokesman hailed Mr Lukashenko’s mediating role in resolving tensions that have roiled Russian power, at a rate rarely seen in several years.
“We are grateful to the Belarusian President for this diplomatic effort,” Mr. Peskov stressed, referring to a “very long, frankly cordial” discussion between the two leaders, allies against the West in Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.
“This situation was resolved without new casualties, without increasing the tension,” he nevertheless rejoiced, while some feared a direct confrontation between the Russian security forces and the Wagner fighters who were on their way to Moscow.
Dmitry Peskov also recalled that Alexander Lukashenko “has known Prigoyine personally for a long time, more than 20 years” and that it was “his personal initiative” to resolve the situation.
Despite this “rather tough day full of tragic events,” Dmitry Peskov stressed that Yevgeny Prigoyine’s attempt to overthrow the military power will “in no way” affect the course of the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
“The ‘special military operation’ continues. “Our soldiers managed to repel the counter-offensive from Ukraine,” he even argued to the press, when troops from Kiev tried to break through Russian defenses.