Image: APA/AFP/SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL TERESHCHENKO
Putin told the newspaper “Kommersant” (Friday edition) that he made the offer at a meeting with the Wagner leadership five days after the uprising. Meanwhile, it was said from Belarus that Wagner mercenaries had started working there as instructors in a number of military disciplines.
Putin said he met with about three dozen mercenaries and their boss. He made them an offer to continue serving in Russia. “They could have all gathered in one place and continued their ministry and nothing would have changed”, he told the paper. Many of the fighters nodded in agreement. However, according to Putin’s description, Prigozhin opposed it.
“Prigozhin (…) after listening said ‘No, the guys will not agree with such a decision'”, according to Putin. The president confirmed that the Wagner mercenary group had been dissolved: “It just doesn’t exist.”
It later became known to which statement by Putin Prigozhin’s negative statement was based. Putin said in the interview that he showed the fighters ways to move forward. One of them was under the command of a senior Wagner commander with the battle name “Sedoi” to serve. “Nothing would have changed for her. They would have been led by the same person who had been their actual commander all along.”
At “Sedoi” – translated “gray hair” – According to French and EU documents, insiders and media reports, it is Andrei Troshev, a highly decorated veteran of the Russian wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. He hails from Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg and was photographed in the company of the President a few years ago. According to the interview, Putin stated that many of the Wagner fighters present nodded in agreement after the proposal. However, Prigozhin did not see this and said that the “guys” would not agree with such a decision. These sentences out “Kommersant” are not found in the Russian government’s official transcript of Thursday’s interview.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry announced on Friday that Wagner mercenaries have moved into a camp in Ossipowitschi, around 100 kilometers south-east of the capital Minsk. The masked uniformed men could not be seen on a video. But you could see exercises with the weapon on a military training area. A moderator in a ministry video said that the Wagner mercenaries shared their combat experience with the Belarusian armed forces. Soldiers in the country, which is a close ally of Russia under ruler Alexander Lukashenko and also gives up its territories for attacks on Ukraine, expressed their gratitude for the instructions in the clip. Lukashenko had announced that Wagner troops would settle in Belarus.
Soldiers for territorial defense are being trained, said officer Maxim Pajewski of the Belarusian General Staff. The video showed a tent camp for the soldiers. In view of troop movements on the streets, there had been speculation in social networks in the past few days that the Wagner army could now be on its way to Belarus.
Three weeks ago, Prigozhin had led the rebellion of his mercenaries. His troops temporarily took control of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, where the military has its headquarters for the Ukraine war. A few hundred kilometers from Moscow, Prigozhin, who has repeatedly criticized the Russian military leadership, broke off the mutiny. An agreement was reached that granted Prigozhin impunity and exile in Belarus.
Putin’s spokesman also confirmed that the Kremlin is considering legalizing private military companies and in particular the Wagner mercenary group, whose existence has not been permitted under Russian law so far. “Legally, the private military company Wagner does not exist and has never existed”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday. It’s about one “complex” Question that needs to be examined, said Pesvkov.
Source: Nachrichten
