Belarus president reveals what transpired during call with Putin; confirms Prigozhin is in his country - WATCH
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday revealed what transpired during a phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, hours before Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin aborted the mutiny on Saturday.
FollowAfter his unsuccessful armed uprising against the Kremlin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the private army of convict recruits and other mercenaries that took part in some of the bloodiest fights in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has returned to Belarus, the president of Belarus announced on Tuesday. The 62-year-old Wagner Group owner was exiled to Belarus as part of the agreement that put an end to the brief rebellion in Russia. President Alexander Lukashenko stated that he and some of his troops would be welcome to stay "for some time" at their own expense.
In an address, Lukashenko also revealed what transpired during his phone call with Putin on Saturday morning. "I understood: a harsh decision had been made - to wipe them all out [kill them all]. I suggested that Putin take his time. Let’s talk with Prigozhin, with his commanders," said the Belarus president.
"Putin said Prigozhin 'doesn’t even pick up the phone; he doesn’t want to talk to anyone'."
"You know, and at the front, oddly enough, it’s better than it ever was," Putin added.
Lukashenko responded, "You see, not everything is so sad."
Lukashenko explained how he managed to reach Prigozhin. "I asked: ‘Where is he?’ - ‘In Rostov’. I say: ‘Good. A bad peace is better than any war. Do not rush. I'll try to contact him'."
Wagner is getting ready to hand over its powerful weapons to the Russian military, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence. Prior to a deadline of July 1 for them to sign contracts to serve under the Russian military's leadership, Prigozhin had stated that his forces were getting ready to surrender over their weapons.
In addition, Russian officials stated on Tuesday that following the agreed agreement, they have concluded their criminal investigation into the revolt and would not be prosecuting Prigozhin or his forces. The mutiny, which lasted less than 24 hours, was put down after those engaged "ceased activities directed at committing the crime," according to the Federal Security Service, or FSB.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, meanwhile, seemed to pave the way for accusations of financial misconduct against a Prigozhin-owned subsidiary company. He revealed to a group of military personnel that Prigozhin's Concord Group had received 80 billion rubles (USD 941 million) from a contract to supply food to the military and that Wagner had received more than 86 billion rubles (USD 1 billion) in the previous year for salary and other expenses.
"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.
With the Russian government, Prigozhin has long had lucrative catering contracts. According to media claims that the Wagner CEO has acknowledged, police who raided his St. Petersburg headquarters over the weekend claimed to have discovered 4 billion rubles (USD 48 million) on trucks outside. He said that the cash was meant to reimburse the families of the troops.
Even though Putin had denounced Prigozhin and his troops as traitors and officials had hurried to bolster Moscow's defences as the mutineers approached the capital, the Kremlin had promised not to bring charges against them over the weekend after Prigozhin put an end to the uprising on Saturday.
An armed mutiny offence carries a maximum 20-year jail sentence. When compared to how the Kremlin has handled individuals organising anti-government demonstrations in Russia, where numerous opposition activists have received lengthy sentences in infamously harsh correctional colonies, Prigozhin's escape from prosecution stands in stark contrast.
The shocking set of events over the past few days pose the greatest danger to Putin's hold on power thus far in the 16-month-long war in Ukraine. Putin has aimed to depict stability in his speeches from Monday and Tuesday.
The revolt was characterised by Lukashenko, who has controlled Belarus with an iron fist for 29 years while relying on Russian aid and assistance, as the most recent episode in a conflict between Prigozhin and Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister. Their long-running personal conflict has occasionally erupted, and according to Prigozhin, the uprising was intended to remove Shoigu rather than Putin.
As the rebellion developed, Lukashenko claimed he put Belarus' armed forces on a battle footing. He added that he had cautioned Putin against responding in a quick manner and that a confrontation with Wagner might have gotten out of hand.
The Ukraine War was presented by Lukashenko, like Putin, as an existential threat, with the statement: "If Russia collapses, we all will perish under the debris."
The Wagner chief's agreement with the Kremlin was kept secret by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He merely mentioned that Putin had given Prigozhin "certain guarantees" in order to prevent a "worst-case scenario".
Asked why the rebels 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."
Additionally, according to Zolotov, the National Guard will soon acquire the heavy weapons and combat tanks it lacks.
In a speech Monday night that was broadcast nationwide, Putin said that the rebellion's planners had aided the government of Ukraine and its allies. He applauded the mutineers who "didn't engage in fratricidal bloodshed and stopped on the brink" while criticising their leaders. In his Kremlin speech to soldiers and law enforcement officers on Tuesday, Putin praised them for averting "a civil war".
