Russia: Rebellious Russian commander Yevgeny Prigozhin will leave for Belarus and a criminal case against him will be dropped, the Kremlin said on Saturday. Prigozhin turned his Wagner force against the Russian military leadership. The Wagner group chief will relocate to Belarus under an agreement brokered by Belarusian president Aleksander Lukashenko.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by AFP: “Avoiding bloodshed, internal confrontation, and clashes with unpredictable results was the highest goal”. Peskov further said that charges against Prigozhin for mounting an armed rebellion would be dropped and troops who joined him will also not be prosecuted. He added fighters from the Wagner Group who did not participate in the uprising will be offered contracts by the Defense Ministry.
The development comes almost 16 months after Russia launched full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and reduced cities to rubble.
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