Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner mercenary group who mounted a quick rebellion in opposition to Russia’s army command over the weekend, has not been seen in public since calling off his mutiny on Saturday, including to the confusion surrounding an episode that has challenged Russia’s veneer of political stability.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, had mentioned on Saturday that underneath a deal to finish hostilities, Mr. Prigozhin had agreed to depart Russia for neighboring Belarus. In return, Mr. Peskov mentioned, the investigation into Mr. Prigozhin and the costs in opposition to him for launching the armed rise up could be dropped.
But in response to Russian media experiences revealed on Monday, the prison case in opposition to Mr. Prigozhin stays open and the costs in opposition to him haven’t been dropped. Kommersant, a Russian newspaper, and the nation’s three primary news businesses — Tass, RIA and Interfax — all reported that the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., continued to research.
The publications, all both state-controlled or affiliated with the Kremlin, cited nameless sources, so their experiences couldn’t be independently verified. If the proceedings proceed, Mr. Prigozhin may resist 20 years in jail.
Mr. Prigozhin was final seen publicly smiling and shaking fingers with supporters when he left the southern Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday evening, after he known as an finish to his transient rebellion in opposition to the army management and turned again the column of troopers he had despatched on a march to Moscow.
Videos of Mr. Prigozhin’s departure from Rostov-on-Don, the place Wagner troops briefly seized a army set up on Saturday, emerged shortly after Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the autocratic chief of Belarus and a reliable ally of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, introduced he had mediated the deal to finish the hostilities. Many observers have raised doubts over whether or not Mr. Prigozhin could be protected in Belarus, given the federal government’s shut ties to Mr. Putin.
Since then, his whereabouts have been unknown, and Mr. Prigozhin, who has been usually profanely outspoken on social media channels all through Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, has not commented publicly about departing for Belarus. On Sunday night, Mr. Prigozhin’s press service instructed RTVI, a Russian TV channel, that he “says hi to everyone and will answer questions” when he has good cellphone reception.
On Saturday, throughout a raid of the five-star Trezzini Hotel in St. Petersburg, which is owned by certainly one of Mr. Prigozhin’s corporations and believed to be the positioning of certainly one of his workplaces, native news shops reported that cops had discovered billions of rubles, packs of an unidentified “white powder” and gold bars.
On Saturday, earlier than he introduced the mutiny to an finish, Mr. Prigozhin acknowledged that he was in possession of huge quantities of money. The cash, he mentioned, was used to pay the wages of Wagner troops and to compensate family of Wagner fighters killed in motion in Ukraine, a sum that quantities to 5 million rubles per household (about $59,000).
“For 10 years, Wagner operated on a cash-only basis,” he mentioned in an audio recording. “When we were working in Africa, Ukraine and other countries, when we were scaring America, everyone was happy with cash,” he mentioned, an obvious reference to a troll farm he has admitted utilizing to meddle in U.S. elections. “And now they’re here to search. It’s OK. The cash was actually found.”
Despite the severity of Mr. Prigozhin’s actions over the weekend, which Mr. Putin labeled treason some Russian officers have been reluctant to criticize Wagner fighters, who’ve confirmed themselves to be efficient, if brutal, in combating on Russia’s behalf in Ukraine and different conflicts.
Andrei Kartapolov, the chairman of the Russian Parliament’s protection committee, mentioned Sunday that the Wagner fighters who took over the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don “did not do anything reprehensible” and had merely “followed the orders of their command.”
“They didn’t offend anyone, they didn’t break anything,” he mentioned. “No one has the slightest claim against them — neither the residents of Rostov, nor the military personnel of the Southern Military District, nor the law enforcement agencies.”
Source: www.nytimes.com