‘March to Moscow’ leader now faces ‘financial’ probe
Wagner Group rebel leader Yevgeny Prigozhin landed in exile in Belarus Tuesday as Russia said it dropped criminal charges against him over his failed coup — but opened a probe into his financial dealings.
A private jet previously linked to Prigozhin landed at a military airfield near the Belarus capital of Minsk at about 8 a.m. local time, having taken off from Rostov, the southern Russian city that had been captured by his mercenaries Saturday.
“Yes, indeed, [Prigozhin] is in Belarus today,” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko later confirmed to his state news agency.
He said he told Prigozhin and his band of hired guns, “As I’ve promised, if you want to spend some time in our country and the rest, we will help you.
“Naturally, at [your] expense,’’ Lukashenko added.
Around the same time as Prigozhin’s reported whereabouts surfaced, Russia’s Federal Security Service, a successor to the infamous
KGB spy unit, announced it was dropping criminal charges against the Wagner chief and his men.
‘Ceased activities’
The charges, tied to the disgruntled group’s weekend march on Moscow, were dropped because those involved in the mutiny “ceased activities directed at committing the crime,” the Russian agency said.
Wagner had embarked Friday on what political experts have called the greatest challenge to Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s 23-year grip on power.
The mercenaries were allegedly disgruntled over how they were being treated while waging war for Russia in Ukraine.
A furious Putin called them treasonous in a national TV address Saturday before the coup attempt was called off hours later. Putin then claimed no one would be charged while banishing Prigozhin to Belarus.
Then Prigozhin released audio Monday boasting how far his troops had gotten without interference in their march to Moscow — and hours later, Putin again went on TV to vow the would-be coup’s leaders would be “brought to justice.’’
The Kremlin then did another supposed about-face Tuesday by saying it was dropping criminal charges.
But Putin suggested Tuesday that Prizoghin — who experts have said is a “dead man walking’’ — still isn’t off the hook.
The Russian president, speaking to troops who faced off against Wagner over the weekend, said officials will be scrutinizing not only the group’s finances but also Prizoghin’s Concord catering company, which had earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef.’’
Putin said Prigozhin’s mercenaries had been “fully financed” by the state, receiving $1 billion from the Defense Ministry from May 2022 to May 2023.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN Tuesday the coup attempt was inevitable and would likely serve as a steppingstone for future challenges against the Russian strongman.