Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is still in Russia, and none of the mercenary group’s troops have set up shop in Belarus, according to the group’s president, throwing doubt on a Kremlin arrangement to terminate their insurgency.
“As far as Prigozhin is concerned, he is in Saint Petersburg… He is not in Belarus,” Alexander Lukashenko told reporters from foreign media outlets.
Speaking in the presidential palace in Minsk, Lukashenko said he knew “for sure” that Prigozhin was a free man, adding: “I spoke to him on the phone yesterday.”
Lukashenko said that Wagner members had not set up a base in Belarus yet, despite an offer from the Kremlin for those who took part in the failed mutiny to do so.
“At the moment the question of their transfer and set-up has not been decided,” Lukashenko said.
On June 23, Prigozhin committed a mutiny against Russia’s military leadership and led an armed column towards Moscow, posing the most serious challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s leadership.
The Kremlin announced 24 hours later that the situation had been resolved thanks to Lukashenko’s mediation, with Prigozhin scheduled to leave for Belarus.
Russian authorities have since shut down or raided Prigozhin’s businesses.
On Wednesday, Russian media released images of police entering Prigozhin’s property, a big and expensive mansion with a helicopter parked in the grounds, allegedly on June 25.
Police discovered wads of rubles and dollars, gold ingots, assault weapons, a wardrobe full of wigs, and several passports in Prigozhin’s name but with photos of different individuals, according to the images.
Lukashenko stated that he is “not worried or concerned” about hosting Wagner forces in his nation and believes they could be beneficial.
“I do not think that Wagner will rise up and turn its guns against the Belarusian state,” he said.
“If we need to activate these units, we will activate them immediately and their experience will be very much appreciated.”
He also spoke about ties between Prigozhin and Putin.
“I don’t know everything about the relationship between Putin and Prigozhin and I don’t want to know everything,” he said.
“Putin knows Prigozhin much better than me,” he said, adding: “Do you think Putin is so vindictive that he’ll bump him off tomorrow? No, that’s not going to happen.”
On the question of the Russian nuclear warheads that have been stationed in Belarus, he said they had only a “defensive purpose”.
“We are not planning to attack anyone with nuclear weapons,” he said, adding however that there would be an “immediate” response if Belarus was attacked.
