Lukashenko put a gulf of distance between himself and Prigozhin the Wagner boss when he said that neither Prigozhin nor his mercenaries were in Belarus, and it was unclear if they would ever move here.
One of the final straws for Prigozhin’s longstanding tensions with the Russian Defense Ministry was the insistence that Wagner mercenaries sign contracts with the Russian government; Prigozhin refused.
But on Thursday, Lukashenko insisted that were Wagner to come to Belarus, its mercenaries would have to sign documents with Belarus’ government.
Just as we were learning that Prigozhin was in Russia, not Belarus, Russian state media released images from a reported police raid on Prigozhin’s office and residence in St. Petersburg.
Yevgeny Prigozhin was last seen in public leaving Russian military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don on June 24.
Persons:
Alexander Lukashenko, it’s, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Lukashenko, Prigozhin, ” Lukashenko, ”, Prigozhin’s, Dmitry Peskov, Putin, Vladimir Putin, “
Organizations:
Belarus CNN, CNN, Russian Defense Ministry, Belarus ’, Anadolu Agency, Getty
Locations:
Minsk, Belarus, St Petersburg, Moscow, Russia, Russian, St . Petersburg, Rostov