Russia drops criminal case against Wagner chief after group ends mutiny, goes back to bases

Russia says a criminal case previously filed against the head of Wagner paramilitary group has been dropped, after Yevgeny Prigozhin ordered his forces to stop fighting and retreat to their bases.

The announcement came in a late Saturday statement by the Kremlin after Prigozhin ordered his fighters to stop marching towards Moscow and vacate the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, which they had taken control of after launching a mutiny.

According to the Kremlin’s statement, Prigozhin’s current whereabouts are unknown, but he will move to Belarus under a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, which ended the mutiny that Prigozhin led against Russia’s military leadership.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the Belarusian president had offered to mediate himself, adding that the Russian leadership highly appreciated his efforts.

Before the deal, Wagner forces claimed they were heading north in a convoy of trucks, tanks, and infantry armored vehicles, hoping they would reach Moscow before being intercepted by the Russian army.

Prigozhin had accused Russia’s military top brass of ordering a rocket attack on Wagner’s field camps in Ukraine — where Russia has been leading a military operation — killing “huge numbers” of his paramilitary forces.

Prigozhin had earlier demanded that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov be handed over to him.