Although the military rebellion in Russia was aborted on Saturday night, questions about what will happen now with the Wagner Group remain open. Several Russian media reports that this Monday its founding chief, Yevgueni Prigozhin, continues to be prosecuted and investigated despite the fact that the Kremlin had assured that the businessman will not be prosecuted and will go into exile in Belarus.
The Kommersant newspaper assures that the criminal case that was opened against the mercenary leader for armed rebellion is still open. The source of this medium says that the case has not yet been canceled and that the investigation continues. Although he adds that very little time has passed to make a different decision.
The Ría Nóvosti agency cites a source in the General Prosecutor’s Office who assures that he is not aware that the case has been closed, without offering further details.
After reaching an agreement mediated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the Kremlin said on Saturday night that the criminal case against Prigozhin will be closed and he will go to Belarus. “If you ask me what exactly is the guarantee that Prigozhin can leave, (I will say that) it is the word of the president of Russia,” said Dimitri Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press officer.
In addition, it was agreed that the fighters of the private military company Wagner will not be brought to justice, in attention to the services rendered to Russia. Those who did not directly participate in the uprising could sign a contract and join the Russian Army.
Prior to this crisis, Putin had ordered all “volunteer” units, including private military companies, to sign a contract with Defense by July 1. Prigozhin, who would thus lose control of Wagner, refused.
Until the agreement was reached, 24 hours of heart attack had followed one another:
On the night of Friday, June 23, Prigozhin accused the Defense Ministry of attacking the “rear camps” of its fighters with missiles and vowed to respond. The Defense Ministry rejected the accusations while the Federal Security Service (FSB, formerly KGB) initiated a criminal case against the businessman, a former Putin ally, for armed rebellion, a crime punishable in Russia with up to 20 years in prison.
At dawn on the 24th, Wagner’s mercenaries entered Rostov-on-Don and took control of the military command of that city of more than a million inhabitants in southern Russia. Prigozhin, who was demanding the arrest of the Army Chief of Staff, Valery Gerasimov, and the Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, whom he accused of the attack on his men, announced that they would start a “march for justice” to Moscow, a thousand miles to the north, to take down the corrupt warlords.
The head of the Wagner Group denounced the disastrous management of the Russian military leadership, headed by Shoigu and Gerasimov, in the war in the neighboring country, which, he said, had cost the lives of some “100,000 Russian soldiers”.
Putin later broadcast a message to the nation on television, calling the uprising a “stab in the back” and “treason,” while pledging a brutal response and doing everything possible to prevent a civil war.
Columns of military vehicles of the “Wagnerites” were passing through the territory of various regions on their way to Moscow. In addition to Rostov-on-Don, they reached Voronezh and Lipetsk, where the highway connecting the south of the country to the capital passes.
In both, in addition to Moscow and its province, measures began to be taken before the arrival of this unexpected internal enemy. Military units were deployed in the capital to deal with what might happen. From Chechnya, his boss, Ramzan Kadyrov, said that he had sent units that were fighting in the Ukraine to Rostov to put down the rebellion.
At night, in extremis, the alert ceased. The Belarusian presidency reported that Lukashenko’s mediation had borne fruit. In exchange for guarantees for Wagner’s combatants, they ceased their advance towards the capital. Prigozhin then announced that they were turning around and retreating to his quarters. They had 200 kilometers left to reach Moscow.
During the day on Sunday, the soldiers of fortune were leaving the regions through which they had been deployed, the restrictions imposed during the crisis were being withdrawn and Russia breathed a sigh of relief.
The latest measures are finishing lifting this Monday. The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, announced that the counter-terrorist regime was annulled. The FSB announced similar decisions in the Moscow Oblast and Voronezh Oblast.
