RUSSIAN AGENTS’ THREAT TO FAMILY MADE WAGNER CHIEF PRIGOZHIN CALL OFF MOSCOW ADVANCE, REPORT

Mon 26 June 2023:

Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, called of his march on Moscow hours before receiving threats from Russian intelligence services that they would harm the families of the mercenary group leaders, British intelligence sources told the Telegraph newspaper.

On June 24, Prigozhin ordered his troops to halt to Moscow after taking control of Rostov-on-Don—one of Russia’s largest cities— to avoid “shedding Russian blood” and agreed to live in exile in Belarus.

The attempted coup was part of a months-long feud between the Russian defense ministry’s top brass and Prigozhin.

Though Prigozhin claimed that he wanted to avoid bloodshed, the UK security officials point to a deeper plot undertaken by the Kremlin to deter one of the biggest challenges to President Vladimir Putin’s decades-long rule.

The British newspaper further reported, quoting unnamed officials, that the mercenary had only 8,000 fighters rather than the 25,000 claimed and faced likely defeat in any attempt to take the Russian capital.

It is being said that Putin will now try to subsume the mercenary fighters into the Russian military and take out its former leaders.

On Saturday, the Kremlin said that Prigozhin would be exiled to Belarus in exchange for a pardon from charges of treason.

Under investigation by FSB

Meanwhile, Prigozhin remains under investigation by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on suspicion of organising an armed mutiny, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Monday, citing an unidentified source.

The criminal case against Prigozhin was initiated on June 23 after he announced a “march for justice” by his fighters against the military leadership, who he said were cowards who were undermining Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

As part of a deal, as set out by the Kremlin’s spokesman, criminal charges against the mutineers were to be dropped in exchange for their return to camps, and Prigozhin was to move to Belarus.

On its website, Kommersant cited its source as saying there had not yet been time to change the status of the case.

President Putin hasn’t been seen in public

More than 24 hours have passed since Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal with Prigozhin to end his revolt and Putin hasn’t been seen in public, Bloomberg reported.

Belarus’s state-run Belta news service reported that Putin thanked Lukashenko in a phone call late Saturday for conducting the negotiations and reaching the deal.

But the 70-year-old hasn’t commented on the deal. The Kremlin said the president guaranteed to let the Wagner leader travel to Belarus and to drop criminal mutiny charges against him and fighters involved in the rebellion.

“Putin had to make concessions and actually surrender, and instead of defeating Prigozhin, he had to negotiate with him and give security guarantees, demonstrating in public his vulnerability,” said Kirill Rogov, a former Russian government advisor who now heads Re:Russia, a Vienna-based think tank, reported Bloomberg.

“Previously, Putin absolutely didn’t allow anyone to talk to him in the language of public ultimatums.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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