Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has confirmed that Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has arrived in the country, according to AP.
Prigozhin and his private military Wagner Group had mounted a revolt against the Russian government last week and had captured two key Russian cities, the military headquarters at Rostov-on-Don overseeing the Ukraine War, and reached within 200 kms of Moscow.
Prigozhin ordered his troops to halt their march and turn around after a deal was brokered between the Kremlin and Prigozhin by Lukashenko.
Under the deal, Prigozhin was to go to Belarus, all charges against him and revolting Wagner personnel were to be dropped, and remaining Wagner personnel were to be offered Russian Defence Ministry contracts.
A day after striking the deal, Prigozhin said in a statement that his revolt was not to overthrow the Russian government but against the injustice that Russian defence leaders had dealt to Wagner personnel. Earlier, he claimed that the Russian military had attacked Wagner personnel and that was the reason for his actions. He dubbed the march to Moscow a march for justice.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin dubbed the mutineers as being "on path of treason" and vowed to punish them. He called Prigozhin's revolt a "stab in the back". Despite vowing to punish rebels, the deal dropped all charges against them.
Prigozhin's revolt against the Russian government was the most serious blow to the authority of Putin, who has led Russia for over two decades. While no serious material damage was caused to the government, the revolt laid bare the faultlines among the Russian elite and showed the inability of control the feuding ruling elite around him.
