CNN
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner paramilitary group, has agreed to leave Russia for Belarus, the Kremlin said Saturday, in a deal that ends an armed insurgency that has posed the biggest threat to the Russian president’s authority Vladimir Putin in decades.
In a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said an agreement had been reached with Prigozhin, referring to an apparent deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“Are you going to ask me what will happen to Prigozhin personally?” Peskov said. “The criminal case will be filed against him. He will go to Belarus himself.”
Wagner’s boss had earlier turned his troops “into our field camps, in accordance with the plan.” Peskov said those troops would not face any “legal action” for marching to Moscow, and Wagner’s fighters would sign contracts with Russia’s Defense Ministry.
The announcement defuses a crisis that began when Wagner’s troops seized control of a key military installation in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and some fighters advanced on the capital .
Prigozhin has publicly criticized Russia’s military leadership and its handling of the war in Ukraine, with little consequence. But he crossed numerous red lines with Putin over the weekend.
A somber-looking Russian president addressed the nation and called Wagner’s actions “a stab in the back of our country and our people.”
The president described the events as an insurrection and Moscow began to increase its security measures.
But by Saturday evening, Prigozhin’s calculus appeared to have changed, with the mercenary saying his troops, who were 200 kilometers from Moscow, were halting their advance to avoid bloodshed.
The videos, authenticated and geolocated by CNN, also showed Prigozhin and Wagner’s forces withdrawing from their positions at the Russian military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don.
In the video, Prigozhin is seen sitting in the back seat of a vehicle. The crowd cheers and the vehicle stops as an individual approaches and shakes Prigozhin’s hand.
Saturday’s dramatic events stem from Prigozhin’s months-long, highly public dispute with the Russian military leadership. He has previously accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general Valery Gerasimov of not giving their forces ammunition and has been critical of their handling of the conflict, but has always defended the rationale for the war.
On Friday, Prigozhin accused Russian forces of attacking a Wagner military camp and killing “a large number” of his fighters, a claim Russia’s Defense Ministry has denied and called an “informative provocation.”
The private military chief apparently held sway with Putin during the conflict, with his Wagner forces taking a leading role in the laborious but ultimately successful assault on Bakhmut earlier this year. The capture of that city was a rare Russian gain in Ukraine in recent months, further raising Prigozhin’s profile.
But Prigozhin appears to have turned not only against the military leadership’s handling of the invasion of Ukraine, but also against the long-time Russian leader and his strategy.
On Friday, he said that Moscow invaded Ukraine under false pretexts devised by the Russian Defense Ministry and that Russia is losing ground on the battlefield.
“We are 25,000 and we will find out why there is so much chaos in the country. We are 25,000 people waiting as tactical reserve and strategic reserve. It’s the whole army and the whole country, everybody who wants to join us. We have to end this debacle,” he said on Telegram.
Wagner upped the ante and went on to take control of military installations in Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh, a city about 600 kilometers (372 miles) north of Rostov. Russia’s national intelligence service, the FSB, opened a criminal case against Prighozhin over his threats, accusing him of calling for “armed rebellion.”
Wagner’s troops were then reported to be moving toward the capital, prompting a major security operation in the Moscow region and the establishment of an anti-terrorist regime, according to Russian officials.
Russian security forces wearing body armor and equipped with automatic weapons took up a position near a road linking Moscow with southern Russia, according to photographs released by Russian media. Monday was declared a non-working day and public and other large-scale events have been suspended until July 1 in the Moscow region, according to Russian state media TASS.
During his speech on Saturday, Putin said Wagner’s “betrayal” and “any action that breaks our unity” are “a stab in the back of our country and our people.”
In response to Putin’s speech, Prigozhin told Telegram that the president was “deeply mistaken.”
“We are patriots of our Motherland, we have fought and we are fighting,” he said in audio messages. Wagner’s chief claimed his forces had seized the southern Russian military headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don “without firing a single shot.” suggesting that “the country supports us”.
The Rostov base plays a key role in Russia’s war against Ukraine, due to its proximity to the countries’ shared border.
The temperature cooled after the agreement apparently negotiated by the leader of Belarus. However, Prighozhin has provided few details about his deal to turn around.
Asked what position Prigozhin would take in Belarus, Peskov said he “can’t answer the question.” Peskov said Lukashenko was able to leverage a personal relationship with Prigozhin to negotiate the deal.
“The fact is that Alexander Grigoryevich [Lukashenko] He has known Prigozhin personally for a long time, about 20 years,” he said. “And it was his personal proposal, which was agreed with Putin. We are grateful to the President of Belarus for these efforts.”
Many senior Russian officials had rallied alongside Putin over the past day. Russian intelligence official Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseev released a video of Prigozhin’s actions that day, describing it as an attempted coup.
Sergei Naryshkin, who heads Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, described the events as an “attempted armed rebellion”.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, another key player in the war, spoke of a “vile betrayal” by Prigozhin on Telegram. “The rebellion must be crushed, and if that requires harsh measures, then we are ready!” he said
Russian officials said detachments of Chechen special forces had been seen in Rostov to quell the rebellion. However, CNN could not independently confirm that Chechen units have reached Rostov.
The FSB also responded on Friday, urging Wagner’s fighters to arrest their leader and open a criminal case against the militia chief accusing him of “calling for armed rebellion”.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stalled earlier this year, top US officials said they saw signs of tensions between the Kremlin and Prigozhin. Officials said the US determined as early as January that an internal power struggle was underway and has been gathering and closely monitoring intelligence on the volatile dynamic since then.
But U.S. and Western officials are being careful not to intervene in the events because of how Putin could weaponize any perceived outside involvement in the escalating crisis, sources familiar with the administration’s thinking told CNN.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned Western countries not to use Prigozhin’s rebellion “to achieve Russophobic goals.”
The European Union, which borders Russia, has activated its crisis response center to coordinate among member countries in reaction to developments in Russia.
Meanwhile, Ukraine took advantage of Russia’s chaotic security situation on Saturday, launching simultaneous counteroffensives in multiple directions, Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, said in a Telegram post.
“The eastern troop group launched an offensive in several directions at once today,” Maliar said, naming Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bakhmut, Bohdanivka, Yahidne, Klishchiivka and Kurdyumivka among the places where the offensive was launched.
Maliar said that “there is progress in all directions” without giving further details. Maliar said “intense fighting continues in all directions of the offensive in the south.” In the South “the enemy is on the defensive, making great efforts to stop our offensive actions,” Maliar added.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian military in eastern Ukraine previously told CNN that Ukraine will benefit from events in Russia. “The fact that Prigozhin has brought all his Wagner fighters to Russia now will definitely have an effect on our front line,” Serhii Cherevatyi said.
