Wagner Chief to Quit Russia in Deal to End Crisis

Militia leader Yevgeny Prigozhin who turned his Wagner force against the military leadership in Moscow, will leave for Belarus and a criminal case against him will be dropped, according to the Kremlin yesterday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that avoiding bloodshed, internal confrontation, and clashes with unpredictable results was the highest goal.

Under the agreement, brokered by Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko, Wagner fighters will not be prosecuted.

He said an agreement has been reached that Wagner would return to its bases, adding that those fighters who had not participated in the rebellion would be allowed to formally join the Russian army.

The Wagner chief called off his troops’ advance toward Moscow on Saturday, pulling Russia back from its most serious security crisis in decades.

The feud between Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russia’s military top brass had boiled over Saturday, with mercenaries capturing a key army headquarters in southern Russia and then heading north to threaten the capital.

Peskov also said it was “out of the question” that Wagner’s aborted rebellion would impact Russia’s campaign against Kyiv.