President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko confirmed on Tuesday, June 27, 2023, that Wagner mercenary group owner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has arrived in Belarus.
The Wagner Chief’s exile to Belarus was part of the deal that halted the short-lived revolt in Russia. Lukashenko stated that Prigozhin and some of his troops would be welcome to stay “for some time” at their own expense.
Russian authorities disclosed earlier Tuesday that they have closed a criminal investigation into the mutiny staged over the weekend by Wagner troops and are pressing no charges against Prigozhin or his troops after the negotiated deal.
Kremlin Spokesman, Dmitry Peskov did not divulge any details about the Kremlin’s deal with the Wagner chief. He only said that Putin had provided Prigozhin with “certain guarantees,” with the aim of avoiding a “worst-case scenario.”
Commenting on why Wagner forces were allowed to get as close as about 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) from Moscow without facing any serious resistance, National Guard Chief, Viktor Zolotov told reporters, “We concentrated our forces in one fist closer to Moscow. If we spread them thin, they would have come like a knife through butter.”
Zolotov also said the National Guard lacks battle tanks and other heavy weapons and now would get them.
As they advanced on Moscow, the mercenaries shot down at least six Russian helicopters and a military communications plane killing at least a dozen airmen, Russian news reports revealed. The Defense Ministry did not give information about casualties.
A number of Russian war bloggers and patriotic activists have expressed their fury about Prigozhin and his troops not getting punished for killing the airmen.
Meanwhile, Prigozhin voiced regret for the deaths in an audio statement on Monday, June 26, 2023. He said, however, that Wagner troops fired because they were getting bombed.
Even though, Russia has dropped charges against Prigozhin for the revolt, Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to make preparations for charges of financial wrongdoing against an affiliated organization owned by Prigozhin.
Putin informed a military gathering that Prigozhin’s Concord Group earned 80 billion rubles ($941 million) from a contract to provide the military with food, and that Wagner had received over 86 billion rubles (over $1 billion) in the past year for wages and additional items.
“I hope that while doing so they didn’t steal anything or stole not so much,” Putin said, adding that authorities would look closely at Concord’s contract.
No Reason To Fear Wagner’s Presence In Belarus
Though there have been recent incidents of Wagner-recruited convicts being suspected of violent crimes in Russia, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko averred that there is no reason to fear Wagner’s presence in his country.
The Wagner troops have “priceless” military knowledge and experience they can share with Belarus, Lukashenko said during a meeting with his Defense Minister, Viktor Khrennikov.
However, Belarusian opposition leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was Lukashenko’s contender in a 2020 election that was widely seen as fraudulent and triggered mass protests, opined that Wagner troops will threaten the country and its neighbors.
“Belarusians don’t welcome war criminal Prigozhin,” she told a news agency. “If Wagner sets up military bases on our territory, it will pose a new threat to our sovereignty and our neighbors,” she added.
Poland’s President Andrej Duda echoed Tsikhanouskaya’s sentiments, saying that the Wagner Group’s relocation to Belarus sends a negative signal to Poland.
“We see what is happening, the relocation of Russian forces in the form of the Wagner Group to Belarus, and the head of the Wagner Group going there, those are all very negative signals for us which we want to raise strongly with our allies,” he told reporters.
