Yevgeny Prigojine arrived in Minsk, three days after marching to Moscow, according to the Belarusian president. The mercenaries will be able to establish themselves freely in the country, whereas they had been forced to sign a contract with the army in Russia before July 1.
Evguégni Prigojine marched on Moscow, here he landed in Minsk. The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, confirmed the arrival of the mercenary in the capital, Tuesday June 27, two days after the show of force of Wagner in Russia. The dictator had agreed to welcome the leader of the paramilitary group on Saturday, as part of the agreement which had put an end to the mad march of armed fighters in Russia.
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Tuesday morning, un Embrayer 600 business jet landed at Matchulishchi military airfield, according to information from the Belarusian Gayoun monitoring group. Minsk has not confirmed whether the leader of the Wagner group arrived on this flight or another. The Belarusian dictator now hopes their Wagner commanders can help his armed forces gain “experience”. There is, according to him, nothing to fear from their arrival on Belarusian territory. “I wouldn’t mind having such a unit in the army.”even bid Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, quoted by the official Belta agency.
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The day before, during a five-minute speech, President Vladimir Putin had offered the Wagnerite fighters the possibility of leaving for Belarus, “to return to their families”, or to sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense or law enforcement agencies. The neighboring country, in any case, seems willing to welcome these men.
“We are not building a camp yet” for Wagner’s fighters, said Alexander Lukashenko. He adds that these soldiers, who are currently still in the occupied Ukrainian region of Luhansk, could take up residence in disused areas, with the assistance of the authorities. The day before, the independent media Viorstka had reported that base camps were about to be erected. More than 8,000 beds, according to this source, were already planned for the future center of Assipovitchy, a city located 200 kilometers from Ukraine.
According to Alexander Lukashenko, still, it is not certain that Wagner recruitment centers will emerge in the country. Above all, he assured that these fighters would never be in charge of monitoring tactical nuclear weapons, which are transferred to the territory from Russia. “It’s our mission”alongside the Russians, “and I’m the Senior Weapons Safety Officer”.
Prigozhin and Lukashenko, old acquaintances
Wagner’s future mission in the country therefore remains to be defined. Saturday evening, Alexander Lukashenko had made it known that the group could continue its activities in his country, “on a legal basis”. And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Yevgeny Prigojine would pack his bags for Belarus, offering the Russian president’s word as the only guarantee.
He then underlined the proximity of the dictator and the mercenary, assuring that they knew each other. “Since twenty years”. The former boss of the Belarusian public audiovisual industry assures that the two men met in 2002, on the floating restaurant run by the future mercenary. A place located in the heart of Saint Petersburg, where all the political and business elite meet. But it is difficult to gauge the real nature of their relationship.
These have not always been in good shape. In July 2020, 33 Wagner fighters were arrested in a hotel in Minsk, accused of wanting to destabilize the country during the presidential campaign, the state agency Belta then reported. The opportunity for President Alexander Lukashenko to mark his territory against the large neighboring country. “We have a good relationship. I call her Genia [diminutif d’Evguéni]”had nevertheless declared the dictator about Prigojine, despite this episode. “I only wish him the best”had for his part replied the mercenary, not very resentful.
Earlier this year, a mace by Wagner, one of the paramilitary group’s emblems, was displayed in its violin case at a patriotic exhibition in Minsk. This sinister symbol of war crimes was autographed by a certain “Bes” – the call sign of Nikolai Budko, a Belarusian commander of the Wagner Group, reports the independent media Reform.by. This man is particularly known for having given the order to execute a Syrian in 2017, tortured and beheaded, his limbs crushed with a sledgehammer.
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Belarus, however, does not seem to have been linked to Wagner so far. In the short term, Alexander Lukashenko intends to grow his role in the negotiations during the Wagner march. The Russian Duma first opened its session on Tuesday with applause for him and for Vladimir Putin. The Belarusian president, it is true, has given new pledges of loyalty to Moscow. After that ? “The only advantage the Belarusian leader could derive would be to use Prigozhin’s men as a personal army against a possible revolt”told AFP Katia Glod, of the European Leadership Network in London.
The arrival of the mercenary has, in any case, the flavor of exile. Vladimir Putin said the Wagner Group had received 86 billion rubles (920 million euros) between May 2022 and May 2023. But also that the “owner of the Concord catering company”namely Yevgeny Prigozhin, had earned more than 80 billion rubles in contracts with a subsidiary company of the Ministry of Defense. “I hope no one stole anything, but we will take care of everything”, said the Russian president. History, no doubt, to issue a final warning to his former cook.