Yevgeny Prigozhin Head Of The Wagner Group Not Reached Belarus Yet Exile Russia Putin

will not prosecute

Russia said on Saturday that it would not prosecute Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group and his fighters who have rebelled against the government. Prigozhin, who declared an armed rebellion against Russia, ordered his fighters to march towards Moscow, the capital of Russia. However, he later asked the fighters to suddenly change course. The Wagner chief said on Saturday that he had ordered his fighters not to advance towards Moscow and return to their bases in Ukraine to avoid bloodshed of Russian citizens.

Russia called the rebellion treason

This is the biggest challenge President Vladimir Putin has faced in his more than two decades in office. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Saturday that Prigozhin would go to Belarus, which has supported Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The charges against Prigozhin and his fighters for inciting an armed rebellion would be dropped, and the fighters who joined them would not be prosecuted.

Peskov also said that the fighters of the ‘Wagner’ group who did not side with Prigozhin in the uprising would be offered contracts by the Ministry of Defense. Earlier, in a televised address to the nation on Saturday, Putin termed the declaration of armed rebellion by the ‘Wagner Group’ as ‘betrayal’ and ‘treason’.

200 km distance was left from Moscow

Peskov allowed Prigozhin and his fighters to leave freely, saying Putin’s “greatest objective” was to avoid “bloodshed and internal conflict that could have unpredictable consequences.” After the deal was reached, Prigozhin said he was ordering his troops to stop the march toward Moscow and return to field camps in Ukraine, where they are fighting alongside Russian troops. It is noteworthy that Prigozhin decided to send his fighters back when they were about 200 km from Moscow, so that the blood of the Russian people would not be shed.

Russia was accused of attack

Prigozhin said that his private army consisted of 25,000 fighters and had decided not to surrender because ‘we do not want the country to live under the shadow of corruption, deceit and bureaucracy.’ In an audio message released on the social messaging app ‘Telegram’, Prigozhin said, ‘It is wrong to accuse the president of betraying the motherland. We are patriots who love our motherland. Prigozhin said he took the step in response to Friday’s attack on his camps in Ukraine by rival forces of the Russian army. However, Russia’s Defense Ministry has denied the attacks on the camps.

Joe Biden spoke to colleagues

Congress leaders were informed about Wagner’s activities only last week, said a person familiar with the matter on condition of anonymity. However, the US had intelligence that Prigozhin had been building up his Wagner Army near the border with Russia for some time. Russian media reported late Saturday that Wagner’s fighters shot down several helicopters and a military communications plane during the short-lived uprising. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden on Saturday spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the situation in Russia. The four leaders reaffirmed their “unwavering” support for Ukraine during the talks, according to a statement issued by the White House.

Russia accused western countries

However, the White House said US officials wanted to ‘avoid any comments that could be misinterpreted as the US taking sides in an internal conflict’. Russia’s foreign ministry also warned Western countries on Saturday against trying to take advantage of the uprising led by Prigozhin. The ministry said in a statement on Saturday, “We caution Western countries against taking advantage of Russia’s internal situation to achieve their anti-Russian goals.”

‘Russia’s weakness came to the fore’

Ukraine hopes Russia’s internecine war will give its army an opportunity to recapture the territories it has occupied. Shortly before Prigozhin announced the withdrawal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that the march had exposed Russia’s weakness and “showed all of Russia’s bandits, mercenaries, oligarchs”. It is easier to capture Russian cities ‘and probably their arsenal’.