As reported by the news site info24.ru and other Russian and Belarusian mass media with reference to information published in Telegram channels, the head of Wagner’s mercenaries Yevgeny Prigozhin is in a hotel in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.

Several channels of Telegram, which is used in the two countries not only as a messaging app but also as a popular means of information, reported on Monday evening that Prigozhin was staying at the luxurious Green City Hotel in Minsk. This information was immediately ridiculed on social networks, and some observers noted that it will be the only skyscraper in the Belarusian capital that does not have opening windows.

In fact, US military expert William F. Wexler, director of the Atlantic Council think tank, said on Monday that Chief Wagner would like to avoid windows on the upper floors of buildings for a while, referring to the adversaries and the Russian officials under whose leadership they died. mysterious circumstances after falling from the floor.

“As for Prigogine, he will have to reflect on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous quote: ‘When you beat the king, you must kill him,'” he said.

Russian television RTVI, however, notes that hotel representatives did not want to confirm whether Prigozhin had booked a room with them.

Prigozhin was last seen in public late Saturday night, leaving Rostov-on-Don in a black SUV after the Kremlin said Alexander Lukashenko had struck a deal in which Wagner’s mercenary boss agreed to go to Belarus and put an end to his rebellion.

Yevgeny Prigozhin claims that he did not want to bring down Putin

The head of Wagner’s group sent his first message on Monday night since leaving Russia following the military uprising he unleashed overnight, and the decision to send his mercenaries to Moscow was not aimed at Russian President Vladimir Little.

Prigozhin posted an 11-minute audio message on his Telegram channel in which he claimed that none of his mercenary group agreed to sign a professional contract with the Moscow Ministry of Defense and that his mercenary firm should cease to exist on July 1.

It will be recalled that earlier in June, the Minister of Defense of Russia, Sergei Shoigu, signed a decree by which “volunteer” units in Russia, meaning private military companies, are obliged to come under the command of the Russian army.

“We did not march to overthrow the leadership of Russia. The purpose of the march was to avoid the destruction of “Wagner” and to call to account the officials who made a huge number of mistakes with their unprofessional actions,” Prigozhin said on Monday evening.

“We marched as a sign of protest, not to overthrow the government,” he emphasized several times.

Wagner’s mercenary boss has again leveled several accusations at Moscow’s military command, claiming his march into Moscow on Saturday had revealed “the worst security problems in the whole country”. He also said his forces were able to block “all” Russian military units and airfields in their path.

Vladimir Putin claims that he gave instructions not to open fire on Wagner’s mercenaries

In a televised address to the nation Monday night, after Prigozhin delivered his own message, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had given the order to “avoid bloodshed,” which he believed Ukraine and the West wanted in the failed uprising by Wagner’s paramilitary groups . group, while thanking Russians for “patriotism” and unity.

“From the very beginning of the events, on my direct instructions, measures were taken to avoid great bloodshed,” the Kremlin leader said in his speech, assessing that the West and Ukraine wanted “such a fratricidal result.”

The President of the Russian Federation also assured that the “vast majority” of the mercenaries of the “Wagner” PMC are Russian patriots.

“I thank those fighters and commanders of the “Wagner” PMC who made the only correct decision – they did not take the path of fratricidal bloodshed, they stopped at the last frontier,” Vladimir Putin said.

But despite his comments, videos posted on social media during the uprising show the Russian military opening fire on Wagner’s mercenaries, who in turn shot down a command plane of the Moscow Air Force.

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