The head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, “will go to Belarus,” and the criminal case against him will be dropped. This was announced by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Saturday evening, commenting on the “deal” that was made with Prigozhin through the mediation of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The Wagner uprising, which lasted about 24 hours and began with a demand for the resignation of Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, and ended with the capture of Rostov and a march on Moscow, as Peskov said, did not lead to the fulfillment of Prigozhin’s goals.
The topic of reshuffles in the Defense Ministry was not discussed with the head of Wagner, Peskov said, adding that “these issues are within the exclusive prerogative and competence of the Commander-in-Chief”.
“An agreement has been reached that the Wagner PMC will return to its camps”, he noted.
“Some of them, who wish to do so, will sign contracts with the Defense Ministry. This applies to the part that did not take part in this campaign. As for the rest of the fighters, no one will prosecute them in view of their merits at the front”, Interfax quoted Peskov as saying.
Earlier, the FSB opened a criminal case against Prigozhin under Article 279 of the Russian Criminal Code (armed insurgency), and Putin of the Wagner fighters as traitors. According to the media, 13 pilots were killed in clashes with Wagner. According to Oryx calculations, the Defense Ministry troops lost in less than a day an Il-22, two Mi-8 electronic warfare helicopters, an Mi-35, a Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter, a Tiger fighting vehicle and a military KamAZ.
According to Peskov, “the president’s word” is a guarantee that Prigozhin can go to Belarus. Prigozhin himself has not commented on the “peace agreement” with the Kremlin, but his forces left Rostov-on-Don. The convoy of the Wagner PMC “went to its field camps”, said the governor of the Rostov region, Vasily Golubev.
The counterterrorist operation regime imposed in Moscow and Moscow Region will be “cancelled in the very near future,” Peskov said.
