Yevgeni Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary company Wagner, agreed to stop his coup attempt and he moved to Belarus. According to the Kremlin, the criminal investigation against Prigozhin will be suspended.
Leader of the mercenary group Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin threatened on Friday to overthrow the Russian military leadership, but the rebellion that started spectacularly was over in just about a day.
On Saturday night, the Wagner boss announced that his forces would turn back and ordered to stop the advance towards Moscow.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov according to which the criminal investigation against Prigožin will be suspended and he will move to Belarus. Prigozhin could have received a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years for organizing an armed rebellion.
The charges against the Wagner soldiers who participated in the rebellion are also dropped. Other Wagner soldiers will be transferred to the Ministry of Defense.
According to Peskov, Russia accepted the leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko negotiated agreement with Prigozhin.
Wagner’s mutinous forces were heading towards Moscow and the city’s mayor By Sergei Sobyan asked city residents to stay indoors from early Saturday evening.
US intelligence officials had known about Prigozhin’s plans around mid-June, US media write CNN and The Washington Post. However, the exact timing or plan of the events was not clear.
Wagner had supporters in Rostov
American magazine of the New York Times According to reports, Wagner fighters streamed out of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia while some of the city’s residents cheered and shouted the group’s name.
Videos published by Russian media show some locals thanking the Wagner forces and others hugging the fighters as they prepared to leave Rostov.
The moments of the departure showed that Wagner still has some popular support in Rostov, where its troops have been a regular sight since Russia occupied Crimea in 2014, according to the New York Times.
During the short-lived occupation, local security forces appeared to show no organized resistance to Wagner, and no deaths have been confirmed in the city, which is full of military personnel. According to the New York Times, the Chechen fighters sent to oust Wagner never arrived in the city either.
The governor of the region Vasily Golubev has confirmed that Wagner’s column has left Rostov and headed back to their camps.
ISW: Wagner could have made it all the way to Moscow
American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) estimated that the Kremlin did not show significant resistance to the armed rebellion of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The think tank estimates that it is a sign of the deterioration of Russia’s internal security.
Wagner would probably have made it all the way to Moscow if Prigozhin hadn’t given his troops the order to return to their bases.
ISW believes that Prigozhin’s deal with Russia is likely to affect the future of Wagner forces. The think tank estimates that Wagner will no longer be able to function as an independent mercenary army as it is now.
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