Belarus leader welcomes Wagner boss Prigozhin into exile

The leader of Russia’s 24-hour mutiny, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has arrived in Belarus, three days after his Wagner mercenary group’s mutiny got here to an finish 200km (125 miles) south of Moscow.

“Yes, indeed, he’s in Belarus today,” leader Alexander Lukashenko introduced, claiming credit score in arranging his exile.

Mr Prigozhin’s whereabouts had been a thriller since he was filmed driving off in southern Russia on Saturday night time.

His non-public jet was tracked flying into the Belarus capital Minsk on Tuesday.

Mr Lukashenko stated Wagner mercenaries had been provided an deserted army base in the event that they needed to affix their leader: “There is a fence, everything is available, erect your tents.”

Under the deal that introduced an finish to the mutiny, Mr Prigozhin has been promised safety and the Russian prison case in opposition to Wagner has been dropped.

Moscow is making ready to switch the mercenaries’ heavy weapons into the common army and the fighters have been informed they will both signal common military contracts, go dwelling or head to Belarus.

Nato members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania have warned that Wagner’s arrival in Belarus might spell bother for them as neighbours. A Lithuanian presidential adviser stated the mercenaries had been harmful as they may participate in sabotage and infiltration operations.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda informed a press convention that if Wagner had been to deploy its “serial killers” in Belarus, then neighbouring international locations would face “even greater danger of instability”.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg stated the alliance was able to defend itself in opposition to any risk from “Moscow or Minsk” and would comply with strengthen its defences at a gathering in Lithuania subsequent week – focusing significantly nations bordering Belarus.

“We have sent a clear message to Moscow and to Minsk that Nato is there to protect every ally and every inch of Nato territory,” he stated.

Russia moved tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus in current weeks, with President Putin saying they might solely be used if Russian territory was threatened.

Belarusian public opinion can also be very disturbed, based on Katia Glod of the European Leadership Network. “Obviously they don’t want to have a criminal like Prigozhin in Belarus,” she stated.

Mr Lukashenko stated merely that the Wagnerites might assist the Belarusian army, sharing their expertise with techniques and weapons.

The mutineers’ ease in seizing management of town of Rostov-on-Don after which driving thus far north with little opposition has uncovered main weaknesses within the Kremlin’s management of safety in Russia after 23 years of Putin rule.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected as “hysteria” ideas that the occasions of Friday and Saturday had dented his maintain on energy.

But then President Putin himself informed an array of Russian safety forces assembled in a Kremlin sq. that they’d defended their motherland, “de facto stopping a civil war in its tracks”.

The rebel was much more alarming as Mr Putin revealed that Mr Prigozhin’s non-public military had been absolutely funded by the state, with $1bn spent on salaries and bonuses in 12 months. An additional $1bn went to Mr Prigozhin’s Concord catering agency for feeding the army.

The Russian leader admitted that pilots had misplaced their lives “confronting the mutineers” within the newest try and snatch the narrative of a turbulent few days that shook the Kremlin.

Six army helicopters and an Ilyushin 22-M command-and-control airplane had been shot down by the mutineers, based on unconfirmed experiences. Some wreckage has been seen however the variety of casualties is unclear.

Mr Prigozhin additionally accused the Russian army of a missile strike on his males on Friday, killing 30 individuals. However, no proof of that has been seen.

“In a day we covered 780 km,” he stated on Monday. “Not a single soldier was killed on the ground. We are sorry that we had to strike aircraft, but they were hitting us with bombs and missiles.”

Videos have proven the Wagner convoy being bombed from the air as they headed north amongst civilian site visitors within the southern Voronezh area on Saturday.

Whatever the reality of how 24 hours of mayhem did come to an finish, one elaborate model was introduced on Tuesday by Alexander Lukashenko, who has dominated Belarus since 1994 and is broadly thought to have rigged 2020 elections to keep up energy.

“I said to Putin: We could waste [Prigozhin], no problem. If not on the first try, then on the second. I told him: don’t do this,” he informed safety officers.

He stated he had provided to telephone Mr Prigozhin, to which Mr Putin reportedly stated: “Look, Sasha [Alexander], it’s useless, he won’t even pick up the phone and doesn’t want to speak to anyone.”

“Give me his number,” he went on. “[Putin] said, ‘most probably, the FSB [Russian Federal Security Service] have his number’.”

Describing his dialog with Mr Prigozhin, Mr Lukashenko stated the mercenary boss was in a state of euphoria due to Wagner’s success till that time.

According to the Belarusian leader, Mr Prigozhin informed him: “We want justice, they want to strangle us, we will go to Moscow.”

“I tell him that half way you will be crushed like a bug.”

Russia educational Mark Galeotti stated the Belarus leader had acted as a helpful middleman for President Putin, who might now search to maintain Mr Prigozhin on aspect to handle his mercenary forces in Africa.

Katia Glod stated that Belarusians had been targeted on how far the disaster had weakened Vladimir Putin, as it could additionally imply a weakened Alexander Lukashenko.

“The twin pillars of Lukashenko are the Kremlin and the violence of [Belarus] security services that fulfil Lukashenko’s orders,” she stated. “In the short term it could mean more repression as Lukashenko feels more weakened. If the Kremlin looks less reliable as a pillar it could mean good news in the long term.”