Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed on Tuesday that Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the mercenary group Wagner, has arrived in Belarus after a short-lived armed mutiny in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, speaks as he meets with Russian servicemen at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, June 27, 2023.
Russian authorities also said Tuesday that they have closed a criminal investigation into the uprising and are pressing no charges against Prigozhin or his troops after the negotiated deal. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said its investigation found that those involved in the mutiny, which lasted less than 24 hours, “ceased activities directed at committing the crime.”
For years, Prigozhin has had lucrative catering contracts with the Russian government. Police who searched his St. Petersburg office over the weekend said they found 4 billion rubles in trucks outside, according to media reports confirmed by the Wagner boss. He said the money was intended to pay soldiers’ families.
Like Putin, Lukashenko portrayed the Ukraine war as an existential threat, saying: “If Russia collapses, we all will perish under the debris.” Zolotov also said the National Guard lacks battle tanks and other heavy weapons and now would get them. In his Kremlin speech to soldiers and law enforcement officers on Tuesday, Putin praised them for averting “a civil war.”
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