Since Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s armed rebellion against the leadership in Moscow, there has been speculation as to what happened to him.
– If you look at Russian sources, there seems to be a fairly large consensus that he is in custody in Russia, says Malcolm Dixelius, Russia expert.
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private plane has been seen flying into Russia, his residence has been searched, according to Russian data, and there could be downsides for the Kremlin to execute him.
– It is possibly a sign that he is still alive. There is a large part of the Russian population that may not support Prigozhin, but at least believe his statements about how badly things are going in the war in Ukraine. In that way, it could be a risk to remove him completely, because you don’t know how big forces that would be unleashed in his favor, says Russia expert Malcolm Dixelius to TV4 Nyheterna.
“Most likely confined”
Malcolm Dixelius’ best guess is that Prigozhin is being held by one of the security services, either the civilian FSB or the military GRU.
– I think the most likely thing is that he is locked up somewhere, or at least separated from the outside world, and is negotiating or being forced into a situation where they try to force as many Wagner soldiers as possible to stand up in the regular army.
Trashed in Russian media
At the same time, the image of Prigozhin as a villain is being spread in the state-controlled media.
– There is a very clear campaign going on in the Russian media, orchestrated from the Kremlin for sure, which tries to discredit Prigozhin and declare that he is a crook who made his money from illegalities.