The fate of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the man some analysts see as the biggest threat to President Vladimir Putin’s rule, remains unclear, but Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, as well as the Kremlin and the FSB, made new comments on Tuesday.

Lukashenko, who on Saturday offered asylum to mercenary leader Wagner to stop his “march” to Moscow, recalled the phenomenon of “color revolutions” on Tuesday during an award ceremony for Belarusian generals.

He accused the West of trying to “once again undermine our country, our entire region, (…) and under this noise to impose its rules, establish its order.”

“If there were unrest, the West would immediately take advantage of it,” he also said, adding that “color revolutions do not happen if there is no reason for it in the country.”

Oleksandr Lukashenko declares that he is “upset” by the events in Russia

Speaking about the military mutiny launched by Prigozhin on Friday night, the Belarusian dictator said that “it was painful to watch the events that were happening [24 iunie] in the south of Russia. Not only for me. Many of our citizens took them to heart. Because the Motherland is one,” he said, referring to the state union of Russia and Belarus.

He also said he had put the Belarusian army on alert on Saturday, “all armed forces, including the police and special forces,” although he expected the situation to de-escalate without the need for mediation.

Speaking about the role he played in the negotiations between the Kremlin and the head of Wagner’s mercenaries, Oleksandr Lukashenko said that “there is no need to make heroes out of anyone.”

“We thought [situația] that it will disappear, but it does not. There are no heroes in this business,” he said.

He accused that the Belarusian opposition in emigration, led by Svitlana Tikhanovskaya, “went crazy” during Saturday’s events and would like to implement a similar scenario of an “armed uprising” in Belarus as well.

The Kremlin claims that they do not know where Yevgeny Prigozhin is

Responding to Tuesday’s daily press conference on the fate of Wagner’s mercenaries, who were last seen in public late Saturday night in the city of Rostov-on-Don, a Kremlin spokesman said he had no information on his whereabouts.

“I don’t have any data and I can’t say anything,” Dmytro Peskov said.

However, he said the deal brokered by Lukashenka was being implemented as the Kremlin announced Saturday night that authorities were dropping the criminal case against Prigozhin and that he would move to Belarus with his fighters, who want to leave with him instead. on signing contracts with the Ministry of Defense of Russia.

“A lot of work was done by several people. And I repeat once again, the president’s will to prevent the worst-case scenario from unfolding has been revealed. There was some agreement to avoid that worst-case scenario, and there were some promises from the president, guarantees from the president. The agreements are being implemented,” Dmytro Peskov said.

“You know that the president of Russia – and this applies to both international affairs and internal affairs – always keeps his word, and if he gives his word, he keeps it,” he assured.

The FSB officially announces the closure of the open case against the Wagner group

“During the investigation of the criminal case initiated by the investigative department of the FSB of the Russian Federation on June 23, under Article 279 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, it was established that on June 24, para. its participants stopped actions that were directly aimed at committing a crime,” the FSB of Russia said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Taking into account this and other circumstances that are important for the investigation, on June 27, the investigative body issued a resolution to close the criminal case,” the FSB added.

The FSB’s announcement came after Kommersant, Russia’s largest financial daily, reported on Monday that the criminal case against Prigozhin and his mercenaries remained open, despite assurances from the Kremlin since Saturday that the charges would be dropped.

In his first public address since the end of the uprising, Prigozhin said late Monday that it was not directed against President Vladimir Putin, but was a form of protest against the Russian Defense Ministry, which in early June decided to put fighters from private military companies under its command.

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.

Where is Evgeny Prigozhin?

Russian and Belarusian media reported on Monday night that Prigozhin would be at the luxurious Green City Hotel in Minsk, citing information that appeared on Telegram, which is used in the two countries not only as a messaging app, but also as a popular means of communication. informing and disseminating news.

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.

But data from flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed on Tuesday that the Embraer Legacy 600, believed to belong to Prigozhin and subject to US sanctions, had only landed in Minsk on Tuesday morning.

The plane first appeared on the radar over the city of Rostov-on-Don, captured by Wagner’s mercenaries on the night from Friday to Saturday.

However, it is not clear whether Prigozhin would have been among the passengers on board on Tuesday.

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