Wagner armed rebellion criminal case closed
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced the closure of the criminal case against the Wagner Group following the 24-hour armed rebellion that took place last weekend.
The case was opened on Friday night 23rd by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office under Article 279 of the Russian Criminal Code after the group led by Prigozhin crossed the Ukrainian border and advanced towards Moscow in a "march for justice". The reason for this mutiny, Russian attacks on a mercenary camp positioned in the Russian rear by the Ministry of Defence. When "their activities aimed at committing the crime" ceased, the criminal charges were dropped. The criminal charge for the events of 24 June carried a prison sentence of between 12 and 20 years.
The whereabouts of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin are unknown. Prigozhin's last public appearance was when he left the city of Rostov-on-Don in a vehicle. Although he did not make any public appearances, the mercenary leader updated with an audio message on his Telegram channel, re-emphasising that his intentions were not to stage a coup or overthrow the Russian government, but to protest against the actions of the Ministry of Defence towards its soldiers. In this audio message, sent on Monday, he gave no details of his whereabouts.
According to the EFE news agency, "this Tuesday, the private plane of the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgueni Prigozhin, landed at the Machulishchi military airfield near Minsk, according to the Gayun investigation group (...) According to data from the flight tracking website Flightradar24, the aircraft in which Prigozhin was travelling landed at 07.37 local time (04.37 GMT). It was an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft with registration number RA-02795, which had been placed on the sanctions list by the United States in 2019 because of its connection to the Wagner leader."
US Intelligence reports claim that the Wagner leader is staying in a windowless hotel in Minsk. US Senate Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner told NBC News: "These are just reports, that he's in one of the only hotels in Minsk that doesn't have windows," Warner also suggested during the NBC interview that the fact that the hotel has no windows could be related to the possibility of an assassination attempt.
