27-6-2023 (MINSK) A jet allegedly linked to Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin landed in Belarus on Tuesday (Jun 27), leading to speculation that he had been transported into exile just three days after his involvement in an aborted mutiny against the Russian military.
According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, an Embraer Legacy 600 jet, bearing identification codes matching a plane associated with Prigozhin in US sanctions documents, descended towards Minsk, the capital of Belarus. The aircraft first appeared on the tracking site above Rostov, the southern Russian city that Prigozhin’s fighters had captured on Saturday.
Shortly thereafter, Russia’s state news agency, RIA, reported that authorities had dropped a criminal case against Prigozhin’s Wagner group, stating that “the participants had ceased actions directly aimed at committing the crime.”
As part of a deal reached late on Saturday to defuse the crisis, the Kremlin announced that the mutiny participants would not face prosecution. Prigozhin claimed that he had been invited to Belarus by President Alexander Lukashenko. However, specific details regarding his journey into exile were not disclosed, leaving his whereabouts unconfirmed for three days.
Prigozhin was last seen in public on Saturday night, departing Rostov in an SUV while smiling and exchanging high-fives with onlookers after ordering his men to stand down.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a speech on Monday night, accused the mutiny leaders of betraying their homeland, although he did not mention Prigozhin by name. Putin stated that Wagner fighters would be allowed to settle in Belarus, join the Russian military, or return home.
