Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the private army of prison recruits and other mercenaries who have fought some of the deadliest battles in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, escaped prosecution for his abortive armed rebellion against the Kremlin and is in Belarus, that country’s president said.
The exile 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 are welcome to stay “for some time” at their own expense, President Alexander Lukashenko said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said preparations are under way for Wagner to hand over its heavy weapons to the Russian military. Prigozhin had said those moves were underway ahead of a July 1 deadline for his troops to sign contracts to serve under the Russian military’s command.
Russian authorities also said Tuesday that they have closed a criminal investigation into the uprising and are pressing no charges against Prigozhin or his followers after the negotiated deal. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said they, “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 organization owned by Prigozhin.
He told a military gathering that Prigozhin’s Concord Group earned $941 million from a contract to provide the military with food, and that Wagner had received over over $1 billion 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,” 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 on Saturday said they found $48 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 Prigozhin and his fighters after he stopped the revolt on Saturday, less than 24 hours after it began, even though Putin had branded them as traitors and authorities rushed to fortify Moscow’s defenses 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.
Prigozhin issued no public statements Tuesday.
The series of stunning events in recent days constitutes the gravest threat so far to Putin’s grip on power amid the 16-month-old war in Ukraine.
In addresses Monday and Tuesday, Putin has sought to project stabilit y and demonstrate authority.
In his Kremlin speech to soldiers and law enforcement officers on Tuesday, Putin praised them for averting “a civil war.” The ceremony featured the president walking down the red-carpeted stairs of the Kremlin’s 15th century white-stone Palace of Facets to address the troops.
Russian media on Tuesday showed Defense Secretary Shoigu, in his military uniform, greeting Cuba’s visiting defense minister in a pomp-heavy ceremony. Prigozhin has said his goal had been to oust Shoigu and other top Russian military leaders, not stage a coup agianst Putin.
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 the clash between Prigozhin and Shoigu. While the mutiny unfolded, he said, he put Belarus’ armed forces on a combat footing and urged Putin not to be hasty in his response, lest the conflict with Wagner spiral out of control.
