No Wagner Group Here: Riddles Grow as Belarus Displays an Empty Base
After the 36-hour mutiny ended on June 24 without a major armed clash, Mr. Lukashenko claimed credit for brokering the resolution, and he seemed to sketch the outlines of a deal: the Wagner leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin would go to Belarus, Russian authorities would not prosecute him, and Wagner fighters in Ukraine who did not want to be absorbed into the Russian military, as required by a new law, could be welcome there, too.
Mr. Lukashenko said last week that Wagner might use an old Belarusian military base, but despite the speculation spurred by the new tents, it was not clear that he meant this one, in the village of Tsel’. He also said that Mr. Prigozhin was in Belarus, though there was no confirmation of that.
On Thursday, in a rare session with foreign journalists, Mr. Lukahsenko said Mr. Prigozhin was in Russia, a free man. On Friday, a Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military intelligence, said Mr. Prigozhin was believed to be in Moscow, with no apparent restrictions on his movements.
General Kasinsky was cagey about the camp’s purpose. He said it would be used for a military training exercise in September, and insisted that the tents and bunks were erected so quickly as part of an exercise in rapid field camp construction.
Source: The New York Times
