Private Army Wagner
Lukashenko: Mercenary chief Prigozhin is in Russia
The head of the private military company Wagner: Yevgeny Prigozhin (archive photo). photo
© Prigozhin Press Service/AP/dpa
He had incited his mercenaries against the Russian military leadership and then went to Belarus: Wagner boss Prigozchin is said to be back in Russia now. The Kremlin is relaxed.
The Russian mercenary boss According to the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko, Yevgeny Prigozhin is no longer in Belarus.
According to the state agency Belta, Lukashenko said at a press conference in Minsk that the head of the private army Wagner was in Russia’s Saint Petersburg. “He is not on the territory of Belarus,” said Lukashenko. The headquarters of Prigozhin’s Concord business empire and his residence are located in Petersburg.
According to the Kremlin, it has no information about Prigozhin’s whereabouts. “No, we are not following Yevgeny Prigozhin’s relocation, we lack the means and the will to do so,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news agency. After the failed uprising by Prigozhin’s private army Wagner against Russia’s military leadership almost two weeks ago, one of the conditions for an amnesty was the oligarch’s departure to Belarus. This condition is still in force, confirmed Peskow.
Weapons, gold, money: photos of Prigozhin’s residence in the media
Meanwhile, photos of Prigozhin’s residence have been circulating in the Russian media since Wednesday. These were made during house searches on the day of the revolt. In addition to the luxurious furnishings of the property, you can also see weapons, gold and large amounts of money that were stored there. However, Prigozhin is said to have gotten these possessions back in the meantime. The publication of the photos apparently serves to damage the image of a simple man from the people that he has built up himself.
Prigozhin’s mercenary force has long been involved in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. At the end of June he claimed that his fighters had been surprisingly attacked in their camps by the Russian army on the orders of Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. He then had his mercenaries march into the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and at the same time set a military column in motion towards Moscow. After negotiations with the Kremlin, in which Lukashenko acted as a mediator, Prigozhin recalled his troops just before the Russian capital.