Kremlin: criminal charges against Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin dropped

Criminal charges against the Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin for inciting an armed uprising have been dropped, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

According to Peskov, Prigozhin “will leave for Belarus”. It is unknown what he will do there.

The spokesman also stressed that the authorities would not persecute the Wagner mercenaries who had taken part in the mutiny.

Those mercenaries who had refused to take part in Prigozhin’s advance on Russian territory will sign contracts with the Russian Defence Ministry, Peskov says.

On 23 June, Prigozhin announced a de facto armed conflict with the Russian Defence Ministry. The FSB opened a criminal case against him for inciting an armed uprising. Earlier today, Prigozhin’s forces took control of Russia’s southern cities of Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh and started advancing onto Moscow.

In the evening, Belarus’ Alyaksandar Lukashenka stated that he had held talks with Prigozhin and managed to convince the insurgent to stop the advance on Moscow. Later, Prigozhin confirmed that the Wagner Group forces would return to their field camps.