The leader of the paramilitary group Wagner Yevgeny Prigojine was welcomed to Belarus as part of an agreement that ended its rebellion in Russia, leading NATO to affirm that it will defend itself against “any threat” coming from Moscow or Minsk.
“Prigozhin is already traveling by plane. Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today,” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced on Tuesday in an ambiguous statement reported by the official Belta news agency. Belarusian media reported that a private jet belonging to Mr Prigozhin landed in Minsk on Tuesday morning.
The tempestuous boss of Wagner had evaporated since announcing the end of his rebellion on Saturday evening, after 24 hours of chaos which saw his men seizing military bases and marching on Moscow, before suddenly turning around. .
If the shock wave of the revolt led by the men of this ex-ally of Vladimir Putin remains to be measured, the Kremlin has already denied that the Russian president emerged weakened from this crisis, yet the worst in addition two decades of reign.
Mr Putin on Tuesday thanked the military who he said prevented a “civil war” from occurring.
“You opposed these unrest, the result of which would inevitably have been chaos,” he said at a ceremony inside the Kremlin.
Seriously, his head bowed, he then observed a minute of silence in tribute to army pilots killed by the mutineers while they “did their duty with honor”.
The rebellion led society to “consolidate around the president”, assured the Kremlin. “The army and the people were not (on) the side” of the mutineers, added Mr. Putin.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry, a pet peeve of the Wagner Group, announced that “preparations (were) underway for the transfer of Wagner’s heavy military equipment to active units of the regular” armed forces.
Such a measure seems intended to neutralize the paramilitary group, which was previously responsible for carrying out the base works of the Kremlin in Ukraine, Syria and in several African countries.
While the Russian authorities once denied any link with Wagner, Mr. Putin admitted on Tuesday that the state had “completely financed” this private army, paying it nearly a billion euros over the past year.
On Monday evening, the Russian president angrily denounced a “treason” by Mr. Prigojine, while ensuring that members of Wagner could join the regular army or go to Belarus, whose leader served as a mediator to stop the crisis. .
Implicitly criticizing Mr Putin, Mr Lukashenko said the rebellion was the result of mismanagement of rivalries between Wagner and the Russian military that have grown steadily since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.
The Belarusian leader also assured that he had advised Mr. Putin not to “kill” Mr. Prigojine, and considered that Belarus could benefit from the “experience” of Wagner’s fighters who will come to take refuge there.
A crisis which proves, according to imprisoned Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, that the Russian regime is “so dangerous for the country that even its inevitable collapse constitutes a threat of civil war”.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Moscow and Minsk against any “threat” posed by the presence of Wagner’s boss in Belarus, bordering Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, three member countries of the covenant.
“We have sent a clear message to Moscow and Minsk: NATO is here to protect every ally and every bit of NATO territory,” he said in The Hague after a dinner with seven NATO chiefs. State or government of the countries of the alliance. “So there is no room for misunderstanding in Moscow or Minsk about our ability to defend the allies against any potential threat.”
In an audio message broadcast on Monday, Mr. Prigojine had denied having tried to “overthrow power”, claiming only to want to “save” his group threatened with being absorbed by the regular army.
In any case, a sign that an agreement seems to have been reached between Mr. Prigojine and the Kremlin, the security services (FSB) announced on Tuesday the abandonment of the proceedings against Wagner for “armed mutiny”.
This leniency, despite the death of an unknown number of army pilots admitted by Mr. Putin, contrasts with the relentless repression aimed at opponents and anonymous people denouncing the military offensive in Ukraine.
Some analysts believe that this crisis could weaken Russian forces in Ukraine and benefit kyiv in its counter-offensive.
The Pentagon on Tuesday announced another $500 million tranche of military aid to Ukraine, including air defenses and armored vehicles.
Mr. Putin had told him before that he had “not had to withdraw the combat units” to redeploy them in Russia during the mutiny.
In Ukraine, a strike targeted the heart of Kramatorsk (east), the last major city under Ukrainian control in the east of the country, falling on a crowded restaurant, killing at least four people and injuring 47.
28/06/2023 01:13:54 – Moscow (AFP) – © 2023 AFP