MOSCOW: Russia was preparing on Tuesday to take possession of heavy military hardware held by Wagner as Moscow moved to bring the mercenary group under its control after its aborted mutiny.
The uprising over the weekend sparked Russia's most serious security crisis in decades, raising questions over President Vladimir Putin's grip on power as his campaign in Ukraine drags on.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was to leave for Belarus in a deal to defuse the confrontation, with Russia's FSB saying on Tuesday that the criminal case against the group's troops was now closed.
"Preparations are under way for the transfer of heavy military equipment from the private military company Wagner to units of the Russian armed forces," the defence ministry said.
Putin on Monday accused Ukraine and its Western allies of wanting Russians to "kill each other" during the revolt, which stunned the country.
In his first address to the nation since the rebels pulled back, Putin said he had issued orders to avoid bloodshed and granted amnesty to the Wagner fighters.
Prigozhin had earlier defended his aborted mutiny as a bid to save his mercenary outfit and expose the failures of Russia's military leadership — but not to challenge the Kremlin.
The rogue warlord's first audio message since calling off his troops' advance on Moscow was released as Russian officials attempted to present the public with a return to business as usual, with authorities in the capital standing down their enhanced security regime.
Fighting continued in Ukraine, where Kyiv's forces claimed new victories in their battle to evict Russian troops from the east and south of the country.
Prigozhin, who did not reveal from where he was speaking, said in an online audio message that his revolt was intended to prevent his Wagner force from being dismantled, and bragged that the ease with which it had advanced on Moscow exposes "serious security problems".
"We went to demonstrate our protest and not to overthrow power in the country," Prigozhin said, boasting that his men had "blocked all military infrastructure" including air bases on their route before they stopped 200 kilometres from Moscow.
Prighozin called off the advance and pulled out of a military base his men had seized in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, a nerve centre of the war in Ukraine, late on Saturday after mediation efforts from Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko.
Saturday’s extraordinary sequence of events has been seen internationally as Russia’s most serious security crisis in decades. Wagner shot down six Russian helicopters and a command and control plane during their advance, according to Russian military bloggers.
The Kremlin has since been at pains to stress that there had been a return to normal.
Prigozhin in Belarus
In a related development, the Belarusian state news agency Belta quoted President Alexander Lukashenko as saying on Tuesday that Prigozhin was now in the country.
Under the deal mediated by Lukashenko on Saturday, Prigozhin was meant to move to Belarus, while his men were given the choice of joining him or being integrated into Russia’s regular armed forces.
But while Prigozhin was seen leaving Rostov-on-Don on Saturday, his exact whereabouts after that could not be confirmed.
Lukashenko also said his defence minister, Viktor Khrennikov, had told him he would not mind having a unit like Wagner in the Belarusian army. The Belarusian leader reportedly instructed Khrennikov to negotiate with Prigozhin on the matter.
$2 billion in state money
Meanwhile, Putin said on Tuesday that the finances of Prigozhin’s catering business would be investigated, saying Wagner and its founder had received almost $2 billion from the Russian state in the past year.
Speaking to soldiers from the Russian army at a meeting in the Kremlin, Putin said he had always respected Wagner’s fighters, but that the fact was the group had been “fully financed” from the state budget.
He said it had received 86 billion roubles ($1 billion) from the defence ministry between May 2022 and May 2023.
In addition, Prigozhin’s Concord catering company made 80 billion roubles from state contracts to supply food to the Russian army, Putin said.
“I do hope that, as part of this work, no one stole anything, or, let’s say, stole less, but we will, of course, investigate all of this,” he said.