Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has been spending time in Russia, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko mentioned, regardless of a peace take care of Moscow below which he had agreed to relocate to Belarus.

Prigozhin’s Wagner Group fighters had additionally not but relocated because the deal had specified, Lukashenko claimed, whereas suggesting the mercenary chief was unlikely to face repercussions from the Kremlin. He mentioned Prigozhin had been in St Petersburg however he didn’t know the warlord’s actual present location.

Some analysts recommended that Vladimir Putin had concluded Prigozhin didn’t goal to overthrow the Russian president when he led an abortive rebellion final month — and that Putin had therefore allowed Prigozhin the latitude to wrap up enterprise affairs in Russia.

“With regards [to] Yevgeny Prigozhin, he’s in St Petersburg,” Lukashenko mentioned. “The place is he this morning? Possibly this morning he went to Moscow . . . ”

He mentioned Prigozhin was not in jail and was unlikely to get “whacked”, suggesting that the mercenary chief is at the moment protected from Russian president Vladimir Putin’s safety providers.

“What’s going to occur to him subsequent? Properly, every kind of issues occur in life. However in case you assume that Putin is so malicious and vindictive that he will likely be ‘whacked’ tomorrow . . . No, that’s not going to occur,” Lukashenko mentioned.

The relocation of the Russian armed group to Belarus was a part of a peace deal brokered by Lukashenko between Prigozhin and the Kremlin after the Wagner boss led an aborted armed rebellion in opposition to Moscow in late June, infuriating Putin.

Below the deal that ended Prigozhin’s rebellion — and led the warlord to tug again the boys and tanks he had despatched marching on Moscow on June 22 — he had agreed to maneuver to Belarus, in response to the Kremlin. Prison expenses in opposition to him have been to be dropped.

Quickly after the failed rebellion, Putin mentioned Wagner fighters may select whether or not to signal contracts with the defence ministry, return house or “go to Belarus”.

The Kremlin confirmed on Thursday that Prigozhin was anticipated to depart to Belarus as a part of the deal. Requested whether or not Prigozhin was certainly in St Petersburg, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned that Moscow “doesn’t hold monitor of his actions”.

“We’ve got neither the aptitude nor the will to take action,” Peskov claimed.

By permitting Prigozhin to return to Russia, the Kremlin was permitting the warlord to “tie up free ends” in his enterprise empire, mentioned Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow on the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Heart.

“After the primary shock of the rebel receded, Putin realised that Prigozhin didn’t intend to overthrow him,” Stanovaya mentioned. As an alternative, he got here to consider that Prigozhin was focusing on the generals on the high of the Russian armed forces, who the warlord blames for mishandling the invasion of Ukraine.

Prigozhin remained a traitor within the eyes of the Kremlin, and can be punished, however for Putin “intentions are all the time essential”, Stanovaya mentioned. “There’s no command in place to cut off his head.”

Putin’s perspective to Prigozhin had advanced for the reason that rebellion, she recommended, creating house for the warlord to return to Russia to wrap up his companies — enterprises through which the state additionally has a significant curiosity.

Every week earlier, Lukashenko mentioned Prigozhin had flown on the warlord’s non-public jet to Belarus, and a Wagner-affiliated social media channel had shared footage of tent camps being constructed within the nation.

However the aircraft has since flown a number of occasions from Belarus to Moscow and St Petersburg and again once more, Flightradar24 knowledge exhibits, elevating questions over whether or not Prigozhin was sticking to the deal.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg mentioned on Thursday that the US-led navy alliance was “monitoring intently” the situation of Prigozhin and his Wagner troops.

“We’re monitoring intently the place the Wagner troopers are shifting round and in addition the place [Prigozhin] is shifting,” Stoltenberg advised reporters. “We’ve got seen some preparations for internet hosting giant teams of Wagner troopers in Belarus. To date we have now not seen so lots of them going to Belarus. And we have now additionally seen Prigozhin shifting round,” he added.

Russian state media on Thursday confirmed footage from inside Prigozhin’s villa that it mentioned was taken throughout a raid by safety providers, in an obvious try to discredit him. The photographs confirmed costly inside decor, money, gold bars, weapons, medicine and photographs of Prigozhin in numerous disguises — which swiftly grew to become memes throughout Russian social media.

Nonetheless, Prigozhin’s present standing with the Kremlin stays unclear. In addition to with the ability to journey to Russia freely, in response to Lukashenko, Prigozhin is reported by native media to have the ability to entry his funds.

Fontanka, a information outlet in St Petersburg, this week reported that Prigozhin was in a position to reclaim huge quantities of money that have been seized from his native companies by authorities in the course of the rebel. The outlet didn’t specify its sources.

Lukashenko mentioned the Wagner fighters have been nonetheless of their base camps close to the entrance line in Ukraine. The camps are believed to be within the Luhansk area of jap Ukraine, an space below Russian management since 2014. On the time of his rebellion, Prigozhin mentioned the boys numbered 25,000.

“Will they find yourself in Belarus or not, and in what amount — we’ll determine this out within the close to future,” Lukashenko mentioned, including that he deliberate to fulfill Putin quickly to debate Wagner.

The Kremlin mentioned that there was no date set for a gathering between Putin and Lukashenko, and added it couldn’t verify that Wagner can be one of many subjects up for dialogue.

Lukashenko denied that camps have been being arrange for Wagner fighters in Belarus. “We aren’t erecting new camps. We supplied them a number of former navy camps, which have been used again in wartime,” he added.

Regardless of being accused of treachery by Putin on the day of the rebel, the Wagner Group has continued to recruit troops for the battle in Ukraine.

The group additionally seems to have continued a few of its actions in Africa.

If Wagner did relocate to Belarus, Lukashenko mentioned, it will not pose dangers to Minsk.

“I’m not in any respect involved or bothered that we are going to have a sure variety of these fighters stationed,” Lukashenko mentioned. “I don’t assume that Wagner will insurgent and switch its weapons in opposition to the Belarusian authorities.”

Further reporting by Henry Foy in Brussels