The leader of Russia’s 24-hour mutiny, Yevgeny Prigozhin, arrived in Belarus, three days after his mercenary group’s uprising ended in Wagner 200km (125 miles) south of Moscow.
“Yes, actually, he is in Belarus now,” announced leader Alexander Lukashenko, who claimed credit for arranging his exile.
Mr Prigozhin’s whereabouts have been a mystery since he was filmed driving in southern Russia on Saturday night.
His private jet was spotted flying to the Belarusian capital Minsk on Tuesday.
Mr Lukashenko said that Wagner’s mercenaries were offered an abandoned military base if they wanted to join their leader: “There is a fence, everything is there, pitch your tents.”
Under the deal that ended the mutiny, Mr Prigozhin was promised security and Russia’s criminal case against Wagner was dropped.
Moscow is preparing to transfer heavy weapons to the regular military mercenaries and told the fighters they can sign regular army contracts, go home or go to Belarus.
NATO members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania have warned that Wagner’s arrival in Belarus could spell trouble for them as neighbors. A Lithuanian presidential adviser said mercenaries are dangerous because they can engage in sabotage and infiltration operations.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told a press conference that if Wagner deploys his “serial killers” in Belarus, then neighboring countries will face a “greater risk of instability”.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance was ready to defend itself against any threat from “Moscow or Minsk” and agreed to strengthen its defenses at a meeting in Lithuania next week – which focusing especially on countries bordering Belarus.
“We are sending a clear message to Moscow and to Minsk that NATO is there to protect every ally and every inch of Nato territory,” he said.
Russia has moved tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus in recent weeks, where President Putin has said they can only be used when Russian territory is threatened.
Public opinion in Belarus is also in turmoil, according to Katia Glod of the European Leadership Network. “Obviously they don’t want a criminal like Prigozhin in Belarus,” he said.
Mr Lukashenko said only that the Wagnerites could help the Belarusian military, sharing their experience in tactics and weapons.
The ease with which the mutineers seized control of the city of Rostov-on-Don and then drove far north with little opposition exposed major weaknesses in the Kremlin’s control over Russian security after 23 years of Putin’s rule.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed as “hysteria” suggestions that the events of Friday and Saturday had undermined his hold on power.
But President Putin himself told an array of Russian security forces gathered in a Kremlin square that they were defending their homeland, “de facto stopping a civil war in its tracks” .
The insurrection became even more alarming as Mr Putin revealed that Mr Prigozhin’s private army was fully funded by the state, with $1 billion spent on salaries and bonuses in 12 months. A further $1bn went to Mr Prigozhin’s Concord catering firm for feeding the military.
Russia’s leader has claimed that pilots lost their lives “dealing with mutineers” in the latest attempt to control the narrative in a tumultuous few days that have rocked the Kremlin .
Six military helicopters and an Ilyushin 22-M command-and-control plane were shot down by mutineers, according to unconfirmed reports. Some debris was found but the number of casualties was unclear.
Mr Prigozhin also accused the Russian military of a missile strike on his people on Friday, which killed 30 people. However, no evidence of this has been found.
“In one day we covered 780 km,” he said on Monday. “Not a single soldier died on the ground. We are sorry that we had to hit the planes, but they hit us with bombs and missiles.”
Videos showed the Wagner convoy being bombed from the air as they headed north amid civilian traffic in the southern Voronezh region on Saturday.
Whatever the truth of how the 24-hour riot ended, a detailed version was presented Tuesday by Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994 and is widely thought to have rigged the 2020 election to retain power.
“I said to Putin: We can waste [Prigozhin], no problem. If not on the first try, then on the second. I told him: don’t do it,” he told security officials.
He said he offered to call Mr Prigozhin, to which Mr Putin said: “Look, Sasha [Alexander]useless, he won’t even pick up the phone and doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”
“Give me her number,” he continued. “[Putin] said, ‘Most likely, the FSB [Russian Federal Security Service] I have his number.”
Describing his conversation with Mr Prigozhin, Mr Lukashenko said that the mercenary boss was in a state of joy because of Wagner’s success up to that point.
According to the Belarusian leader, Mr Prigozhin told him: “We want justice, they want to strangle us, we are going to Moscow.”
“I told him that in the middle of the road you will be crushed like a bug.”
Russian academic Mark Galeotti said the Belarusian leader was acting as a useful mediator for President Putin, who may now seek to keep Mr Prigozhin on the side to manage his mercenary forces in Africa.
Katia Glod said that Belarusians are focused on how far the crisis has weakened Vladimir Putin, because it also means a weakened Alexander Lukashenko.
“The twin pillars of Lukashenko are the Kremlin and the violence of [Belarus] security services carrying out Lukashenko’s orders,” he said. “In the short term this may mean more repression as Lukashenko feels weaker. If the Kremlin looks less reliable as a pillar this could mean good news in the long term.