Belarus dictator Lukashenko reveals the astonishing conversations he had with mutinous Prigozhin
Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko has revealed the astonishing conversations he had at the weekend with Yevgeny Prigozhin, noting that Vladimir Putin was furious that the Wagner chief wouldn't take his calls during the brief uprising.
Lukashenko said he told Prigozhin that he would be ‘squashed like a bug’ if he tried to attack Moscow, and warned that the Kremlin would never fulfill his demand to oust Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the general staff, General Valery Gerasimov.
Prigozhin arrived in Belarus today under a deal that ended a short-lived mutiny against the Russian military by his fighters, state news agency Belta said, quoting Lukashenko.
On its Telegram channel Belta quotes the Belarusian leader as saying: ‘Security guarantees, as he promised yesterday, were provided. I see that Prigozhin was already flying on this plane. Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today.’
Flight tracking service Flightradar24’s website showed an Embraer Legacy 600 jet, bearing identification codes that match a plane linked to Prigozhin in US sanctions documents, descending to landing altitude near the capital Minsk.
The exile of the 62-year-old owner of the Wagner Group was part of a deal that ended the mutiny in Russia.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russia’s FSB security service dropped charges against participants in the brief uprising as part of a deal negotiated by Lukashenko and his long-term ally Putin.
Lukashenko said Prigozhin and some of his troops are welcome to stay in Belarus ‘for some time’ at their own expense.
In Moscow, Putin praised Russia’s armed forces for preventing a civil war as he sought to reassert his authority after the crisis.
Lukashenko detailed his back-and-forth phone calls with Putin and Prigozhin on Saturday to try to bring an end to the coup attempt, during which the Wagner chief swore profusely.
He said Prigozhin had been determined to advance to Moscow to protest the alleged wrongdoings against Wagner, but he quickly changed his mind once the negotiator informed him that he would face grave results.
