Prigozhin's 'mutiny' over, 'Putin's cook' sent to Belarus
Prigozhin to the left of Putin / AP
The "mutiny" of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the creator of the Wagner PMC, ended as suddenly as it began. On the evening of June 24, he released a voice message saying that he "did not want to shed Russian blood," but his goal was "achieved": allegedly, the PMC will not be disbanded. In this regard, he decided to turn back the columns and refuse to march on Moscow.
Earlier, however, Prigozhin stated other goals: first, he was dissatisfied with Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, and Valery Gerasimov, the head of the General Staff, and later he promised to fight corruption in the country.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said that the criminal case against Prigozhin would be dropped, but that he would now "leave for Belarus."
Lukashenka's press service tried to pass off the resolution of the situation as a personal achievement of the Belarusian politician, who allegedly spent the whole day in negotiations, but Prigozhin did not mention him in the audio message, and Peskov called "the word of the Russian president" the guarantee of the former cook of Putin "to leave for Belarus".
