The Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin flew into exile in Belarus on his private jet on Tuesday, as Moscow claimed the paramilitary force had agreed to hand over its weapons after the group’s failed insurrection.
“Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today,” the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said in comments first reported by Belta, the country’s national news agency.
Prigozhin, a 62-year-old former convict who rose to become Russia’s most powerful mercenary, was last seen in public when he left Rostov-on-Don on Saturday, a major city in southern Russia which his troops briefly occupied.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russia’s FSB security service dropped charges against participants in the Wagner group’s failed insurrection as part of a deal negotiated by the Belarusian dictator and Vladimir Putin that involved the warlord moving to Belarus.
Speaking in front of the country’s officials, Lukashenko said that he had offered Wagner troops an “abandoned base” in Belarus.
“Set up your tents … We can help in any way we can,” Lukashenko said, adding that Belarus should not be scared of Prigozhin’s soldiers, whom he described as “the most prepared unit in the Russian army” in an apparent dig at Moscow.
Lukashenko also gave his behind-the-scenes account of Saturday’s negotiation talks, claiming that he had talked Putin out of killing Prigozhin.
“I understood: a harsh decision was made – to wipe out Prigozhin,” Lukashenko said.
“I said to Putin, yes we could wipe him out, it wouldn’t be a problem, if it doesn’t work the first time then the second. I told him: don’t do this.”
“These guys [Wagner] know how to stand up for each other … and they fought in Africa, Asia, Latin America, they will go to the end,” he continued.
Lukashenko denied media reports that said Belarus was constructing bases for Wagner soldiers, but added: “If they [Wagner’s soldiers] want, we will place them.”
The Belarusian president added that Wagner troops would not guard Russian tactical nuclear weapons allegedly deployed in Belarus.
On Monday evening, Putin said in an unscheduled address to the nation that Wagner would be shut down and the group’s fighters – some of Russia’s most effective combatants – had the choice to sign a contract with the ministry of defence, step down or move to Belarus.
Lukashenko also told his defence minister that Wagner soldiers could provide the country “priceless” information about warfare.
“If their commanders come to us and help us … They will tell us about weapons: which worked well, and which did not. And tactics … how to attack, how to defend … This is what we can get from Wagner,” the Belarusian dictator said.
Prigozhin has not commented on whether other Wagner fighters planned to follow him to Belarus, and Lukashenko said that Wagner troops were currently stationed at their camps in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.
Lukashenko’s comments came as the Kremlin stepped up its plans to dissolve Wagner in Russia.
The country’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that Wagner was preparing to hand over heavy military equipment to the regular army. In a separate meeting with his security forces, Putin said Wagner was entirely financed by the Russian state.
The Kremlin for years denied it had any links to Wagner.
Putin said Moscow spent 86bn roubles ($1bn) on Prigozhin’s troops in the 12 months to May 2023, while in the same period the mercenary leader made almost as much from his food and catering business. Putin said authorities would investigate how the money had been spent.
Russia also appeared to shore up its internal security forces with the head of Rosgvardiya, a force used to suppress internal dissent, saying his troops would be equipped with heavy weapons and tanks in the aftermath Prigozhin’s rebellion.
Putin addressed members of Russia’s security services in the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square on Tuesday, telling them they “essentially prevented a civil war” during Prigozhin’s armed mutiny.
“You have defended the constitutional order, the lives, security and freedom of our citizens. You have saved our motherland from upheaval. In fact, you have stopped a civil war,” he said.
“The people and the army were not on the side of the mutineers,” he told the assembled heads of Russia’s main domestic security services and the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, whom Prigozhin had sought to oust with his uprising.
Sam Greene, the director of the Russia Institute at King’s College London, said Putin’s recent public statements indicated that the Russian leader was eager to project a sense of unity after the biggest crisis in his 23 years in power.
“Putin is hoping – through a series of set-piece events, like last night’s security meeting and today’s address on Cathedral Square – to rewrite the narrative of Prigozhin’s putsch as one of consolidation and consensus.”
