Putin wanted to ‘erase’ Prigozhin, Belarusian President Lukashenko revealed

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin not to execute Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. Wagner’s rebellion was denounced by the Kremlin as a rebellion and raised the risk of civil war in Russia. Putin initially vowed to crush the rebellion, comparing it to the wartime upheavals that led to the 1917 revolution and then civil war. But a few hours later an agreement was reached to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to move to Belarus.

Prigozhin flew from Russia to Belarus on 27 June. In describing his conversation with Putin, Lukashenko used the Russian criminal slang phrase for kill someone, which is equivalent to the English phrase “wipe out”. “I also understand that a brutal decision was taken to eliminate the rebels,” Lukashenko told a meeting of his military officers and journalists, according to Belarusian state media.

Lukashenko said that I suggested Putin not to hurry. I said let’s talk with Prigozhin and his commanders. To which he told me listen, Sasha, it’s useless. He doesn’t even pick up the phone, he doesn’t want to talk to anyone. Putin used the same Russian verb about Chechen terrorists in 1999, vowing to “rub them down to a pile of filth”, a remark that became a widely quoted symbol of his grim personality.