‘Wagner chief Prigozhin again in Russia’ after Belarus tried coup exile
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed as we speak that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the infamous Wagner Group mercenaries, is at the moment residing in St. Petersburg after leaving Belarus.
This comes after Lukashenko performed a pivotal function in brokering a deal that quelled Prigozhin’s latest rebel, granting him and his troopers safety ensures and permission to relocate to Belarus.
The swift mutiny noticed these mercenaries swiftly seize management of the important thing Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don and even managed to seize navy headquarters earlier than embarking on a brazen march in the direction of the center of Moscow.
Prigozhin dubbed this audacious transfer a “march of justice” aimed toward toppling the Russian defence minister and the Chief of the General Staff.
According to Prigozhin himself, his forces got here perilously near the Russian capital, halting their advance a mere 200 kilometres (124 miles) away, all because of the diplomatic intervention by Lukashenko.
This dramatic flip of occasions marked essentially the most vital problem to Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s reign in his prolonged twenty-year rule, finally exposing the vulnerabilities throughout the Kremlin’s energy construction.
Lukashenko’s latest assertion corroborates earlier stories from Russian media, which speculated that Prigozhin had been sighted in St. Petersburg.
However, Express.co.uk reported per week in the past that the Wagner chief may had already returned to Russia and was the truth is granted “political immunity”, elevating suspicions that he was solely in Belarus for a couple of hours at most in the previous few weeks.
This immunity, which if true, would have been given to him by the Kremlin and allowed him to stay in St Petersburg till July 1, the northwestern Russian metropolis the place the personal navy firm headquarters is situated.
Analysis of Prigozhin’s personal jet’s actions final week, means that he was in Belarus for simply 14 hours and 59 minutes, on June 27, throughout which period he might have met with Lukashenko within the President’s residence at Zaslauskaye reservoir, simply exterior Minsk, the place the Belarusian dictator normally carries out “non-public negotiations”.
According to Fontanka, a St Petersburg news website, the Wagner chief had travelled again to Russia along with his personal jet to gather an arsenal of weapons.
A 4×4 car was witnessed pulling up exterior an investigator’s workplace within the coronary heart of St. Petersburg on Tuesday night. Eyewitnesses reported seeing Prigozhin himself, accompanied by his aides, carrying weapons and swiftly loading them into the car.