Death of Yevgeny Prigozhin
Lukashenko wants to protect Putin – but does him a disservice
Alexander Lukashenko once assured Yevgeny Prigozhin of absolute security. Now he doesn’t want to know anything about his promise.
© Ilya Pitalev / Sputnik Moscow Russia PUBLICATION / Imago Images
Two months ago, Alexander Lukashenko still claimed that Yevgeny Prigozhin owed his life to him. He convinced Putin to spare Prigozhin. But now he wants to be sure that the Kremlin boss is not behind the death of the Wagner leader. A defense that is much more like an accusation.
With the Belarusian dictator, Putin had found the perfect man who could mime the mediator. As ruler of another state, he had the rank and prestige required to fill that role. And he had even more: a country that he could make available to the failed mutineers as an intermediate base.
And so Lukashenko happily boasted that he personally convinced Putin to let Prigozhin live. Putin called him on the day of the march on Moscow and informed him of the situation. At that point, the head of the Kremlin had already made a “cruel decision,” Lukashenko said a few days later. Killing Prigozhin is theoretically possible, but it would result in a lot of bloodshed, he explained to Putin.
Alexander Lukashenko gets caught up in contradictions
According to Lukashenko’s version, he finally managed to talk sense into both Putin and Prigozhin and negotiate a deal. In exchange for impunity and safe conduct to Belarus, Prigozhin called off the uprising.
But now the fallen Wagner boss is dead. And Lukashenko doesn’t want to know anything about the security guarantees that he once gave. “First: I don’t have to take care of Prigozhin’s security”, Lukashenko said at a meeting with representatives of his state media last Friday. “Secondly, we never had a conversation on this subject,” he explained, only to contradict himself immediately. “We guarantee you absolute security in Belarus,” he promised Prigozhin over the phone when it came to persuading the mutineer to turn away. He made the promise even though Prigozhin “never paid any special attention to the question of his safety.”
So what does he have to do with Prigozhin’s death, Lukashenko asked the assembled state media representatives. “How could he ensure his security in Africa?” the Belarusian dictator spoke of himself in the third person. “And then he landed in Moscow and flew to St. Petersburg. How could I ensure his safety? So I’m the wrong person to ask such questions. Moreover, there has never been a conversation like this – one in which the speech from offering him security on foreign territory,” added Lukashenko smugly.
Yevgeny Prigozhin overlooked the small print
The fact that his security promise only applied to the territory of Belarus was probably the small print in the contract between Lukashenko and Prigozhin, which only the dictator read. Lukashenko himself said that he reassured Prigozhin when he expressed fear that the Kremlin would start eliminating the Wagner fighters. “I told him: They won’t start it. I guarantee you that. (…) I will take you to Belarus and guarantee you complete safety. And your boys,” Lukashenko said three days after Prigozhin’s mutiny.
Now that Prigozhin is dead, those words are forgotten. Just like the words of Putin’s “cruel decision” to kill Prigozhin. Today, Lukashenko allegedly cannot imagine that Putin gave the order to remove the Wagner leader. “I can’t say who did it. I won’t even be my older brother’s lawyer,” Lukashenko said on Friday, referring to the Kremlin boss. “But I know Putin. He is a calculating, very calm and even hesitant person, even when it comes to decisions on other, less complex issues. So I cannot imagine that Putin did this, that Putin is responsible for it. It’s also too rough, unprofessional work. That doesn’t look like Putin,” Lukashenko announced.
One of the talents of the Belarusian dictator is to swipe Putin with a single sentence while professing to defend him — and to ask where he met Putin’s professional work to make such a judgment.