The head of the “Wagner” PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin will move to Belarus, the criminal case against him for calling for an armed uprising will be closed on Friday, the Kremlin said, Reuters reports, and the mercenaries who did not participate in the “justice march” will sign contracts from the Ministry of Defense of Russia.

In a video on social networks, you can see the head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leaving the headquarters of the Russian army in Rostov.

The criminal case opened by Russia against Prigozhin will be closed

Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin will move to Belarus under a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to end an armed rebellion led by Prigozhin against Russia’s military leadership, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov said that Lukashenko offered to mediate the approval of Russian President Vladimir Putin because he had known Prigozhin personally for about 20 years.

It will be recalled that the office of the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, announced on Saturday that he had reached an agreement with the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who agreed to de-escalate the situation in Russia.

Yevgeny Prigozhin later confirmed that he had agreed to end the uprising in Russia on the condition that the mercenaries’ safety was ensured. Until now, it was not known what the agreement between the head of Wagner and Lukashenka entailed, but according to Peskov, the criminal case opened by the FSB on Friday will be closed, and Prigozhin should move to Belarus.

Wagner’s fighters who participated in his “march for justice” will not face any lawsuits related to their previous service in Russia.

Russia accused the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin of calling for an armed uprising on Friday after he said without providing evidence that the Russian military leadership had killed 2,000 of his fighters and vowed to stop what he called “evil”.

In connection with the development of a long-term confrontation between him and the Ministry of Defense, the department stated that Prigozhin’s accusations “do not correspond to reality, but are an information challenge.”

Prigozhin said his actions did not amount to a military coup, but Russia’s FSB opened a criminal case against him on charges of inciting armed rebellion.

“This is not a military coup,” Prigozhin said in a series of audio recordings posted on Telegram. “This is a march for justice. Our actions do not interfere with the troops in any way.”

In a televised speech on Saturday, Vladimir Putin accused Prigozhin of “betraying” Russia because of his “excessive ambitions.” He promised that he would “not allow” a new “civil war” in Russia and promised “decisive” measures against the “mortal threat” from Wagner’s army.

Armed to the teeth, Russian mercenaries who had advanced as far as Moscow began returning on Saturday, easing what has become President Vladimir Putin’s biggest challenge since he became president. Putin says that in this way it was possible to avoid bloodshed.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former associate of Putin and founder of the Wagner group, said that his men had reached 200 km from the capital. Earlier, Moscow deployed the military to meet the mercenaries and urged residents not to leave their homes.

Mercenaries who did not participate in the “justice march” will sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense, which Prigozhin had previously refused

We remind you that Minister Serhii Shoigu issued an order according to which Russian volunteer units must sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense by July 1, and he justified this order with the need for better integration of Russian military units, which will promote “unified approaches” in the performance of combat missions.

Yevgeny Prigozhin immediately reacted, declaring that “Wagner” would not sign a similar contract, which meanwhile, as reported by the Russian army TV channel “Zvezda”, was signed by three brigades and four volunteer units, as well as the Chechen group “Akhmat” headed by Ramzan Kadyrov .

But after the armed rebellion led by Prigozhin, the agreement with Lukashenko, according to the Kremlin, stipulated that mercenaries who did not participate in the “justice march” should sign these contracts.