A day after the Kremlin announced a deal with Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian state-run media reported that the criminal case against him has not been dropped and is continuing.
The Russian government had started a criminal case against Prigozhin after he revolted against the Russian government and his private military Wagner Group marched to Russian capital Moscow. The Wagner Group captured Rostov-on-Don and the Russian military headquarters there that oversees Ukraine war efforts.
Prigozhin's revolt against the Russian government came as the most serious threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin's over two decades of rule in Russia. Experts say that the revolt, even as it ultimately ended without any serious material damage, has shown that Putin no longer has the ironclad control over the country's elite who are feuding among themselves. As the Wager Group came within 200 kms of Moscow, the security vulnerabilities of the Russian military were also laid bare.
Late on Saturday, Prigozhin announced that he has ordered Wagner Group's personnel to stop their march to Moscow and return to their positions on the Ukrainian war front. Later, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that he has brokered a deal between the Russian government and Prigozhin.
Later, Kremlin announced that, under the deal, Prigozhin would go to Belarus and charges against him would be dropped. It further said that personnel who participated in his mutiny would not be charged and remainer of the Wagner personnel would be offered Russian military contracts. However, the exact fate of Wagner Group and its personnel remains uncertain and no official word has since come either form Prigozhin or Kremlin.
Now, TASS News Agency has reported that the case against Prigozhin has not been dropped.
"The investigation of the criminal case against Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), accused of organizing an armed mutiny, has not been closed, a source in the Russian Prosecutor General's Office confirmed to TASS on Monday," reported TASS, adding that the offences that Prigozhin is charged with carry a sentence of 12-20 years.
Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) had opened a case under Article 279 of the Russian Criminal Code for an armed mutiny against Prigozhin on Saturday.
Putin described those participating in the revolt as being "on path of treason" and vowed to punish them. He described the mutiny as "stab in the back".
Until before the mutiny, Wagner was often described as the Kremlin's sword-arm for dirty jobs abroad. It had been at the helm of some of the most intense fighting in Ukraine and had got Russia its most crucial victories in recent months, such as in Bakhmut and Soledar.
