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Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin is doing time in Russia, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko said, despite a peace deal with Moscow in which he agreed to move to Belarus.
Prigozhin’s Wagner Group fighters have also not been transferred as stipulated in the deal, Lukashenko admitted, while suggesting the mercenary leader is unlikely to face repercussions from the Kremlin. He said Prigozhin was in St Petersburg but he did not know the exact location of the warlord.
“Partner [to] Yevgeny Prigozhin, he is in St Petersburg,” said Lukashenko. “Where is he this morning? Maybe this morning he went to Moscow. . . “
He said Prigozhin was not in prison and was unlikely to be “hacked”, suggesting the mercenary leader was currently safe from the security services of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“What will happen to him next?” Well, all kinds of things happen in life. But if you think that Putin is malicious and vindictive he will be ‘beaten’ tomorrow. . . No, that will not happen,” said Lukashenko.
The transfer of Russian armed forces to Belarus was part of a peace deal brokered by Lukashenko between Prigozhin and the Kremlin after the Wagner chief led an aborted armed uprising against Moscow. in late June, which angered Putin.
Under the deal that ended Prigozhin’s rebellion — and led the warlord to withdraw the men and tanks he sent marching on Moscow on June 22 — he agreed to move to Belarus, according to the Kremlin. The criminal charges against him should be dropped.
Shortly after the failed uprising, Putin said that Wagner fighters could choose whether to sign contracts with the defense ministry, return home or “go to Belarus”.
The Kremlin confirmed after Lukashenko’s comments on Thursday that Prigozhin was expected to leave Belarus as part of the deal. Asked if Prigozhin was really in St Petersburg, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow “does not track his movements”.
“We have neither the capability nor the desire to do this,” Peskov said.
He added that no date has been set for a meeting between Putin and Lukashenko, and that the Kremlin could not confirm that Wagner would be one of the topics to be discussed.
A week earlier, Lukashenko said Prigozhin had flown on the warlord’s private jet to Belarus, and a Wagner-affiliated social media channel shared photos of tent camps set up in the country.
But the plane has since flown several times from Belarus to Moscow and St Petersburg and back again, Flightradar24 data shows, raising questions about whether Prigozhin is sticking to the deal.
Russian state media on Thursday showed footage from inside Prigozhin’s villa that it said was taken during a raid by security services, in an apparent attempt to discredit him. The pictures show expensive interior decor, cash, gold bars, guns, drugs and photos of Prigozhin in various disguises – which quickly became memes on Russian social media.
However, Prigozhin’s current status in the Kremlin remains unclear. As well as being able to travel freely to Russia, according to Lukashenko, Prigozhin was reported by local media to access his funds.
Fontanka, a news outlet in St Petersburg, this week reported that Prigozhin has recovered large sums of money seized from his local businesses by authorities during the uprising. The outlet did not specify its sources.
In his press conference on Thursday, Lukashenko said that the Wagner fighters are still in their base camp near the front line in Ukraine. The camps are believed to be in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, an area under Russian control since 2014. At the time of his uprising, Prigozhin said the men numbered 25,000.
“Whether they will end up in Belarus or not, and in what number – we will find out in the near future,” Lukashenko said, adding that he plans to meet with Putin soon to discuss Wagner and how group movement in the future.
Lukashenko said that the camps were not set up for Wagner fighters in Belarus. “We are not building new camps. We offered them many former military camps, which were used during the war,” he added.
Despite being accused of treason by Putin on the day of the uprising, the Wagner Group continues to recruit troops for the war in Ukraine, according to its job ads on the Telegram messaging app.
The group also appears to be continuing some of its activities in Africa, where it operates as a private military company, contracted by local governments.
If Wagner moved to Belarus, Lukashenko said, it would not be a danger to Minsk.
“I am not at all concerned or worried that there is a certain number of these fighters stationed,” Lukashenko said. “I do not think that Wagner will rebel and turn its guns against the Belarusian authorities . . . Anything can happen in life, but I don’t see it in the cards right now.
However, he said, fighters can be deployed to provide security to the country. “We will install them under certain conditions. The main condition is that if we need to activate this unit for national defense, it will be activated immediately. And their experience is necessary.”