Global Courant
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2017.SERGEI ILNITSKY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was exiled to Belarus last month after organizing an armed uprising.
But Putin’s former ally apparently reappeared in St. Petersburg this week, causing confusion.
A Pentagon official told The New York Times that it appears Prigozhin has been mostly in Russia.
Yevgeny Prigozhin was exiled to Belarus last month after using his mercenary Wagner Group to stage an armed mutiny against Moscow’s military leadership, but after apparently appearing in St Petersburg this week, some have questioned whether he had left Russia in the first place.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenkowho took credit for convincing Russian President Vladimir Putin not to kill Prigozhin, helped broker the deal that ended the uprising, including Prigozhin’s exile. But Lukashenko said on Thursday that the Wagner boss was already back in Russia.
That’s what former CIA spies have said Insiders Sonam Sheth that Prigozhin’s swift return was a sign of weakness on behalf of Putin – who has in the past imprisoned or even killed opponents for much less than an armed insurrection.
But things got even weirder with the suggestion that Prigozhin may never have gone to Belarus.
An anonymous Pentagon official said The New York Times that Prigozhin has actually been in Russia—Moscow or St. Petersburg—most of the time since the mutiny. The official also said it was unclear whether Prigozhin ever went to Belarus, noting that he used body doubling.
An official also told the Times that it appeared there were no Wagner troops in Belarus and most of them were still at bases in eastern Ukraine. Lukashenko also told reporters on Thursday that it was unclear whether the Wagner fighters would come to Belarus after he previously offered them a military base in the desert.
Prigozhin’s history of apparently using body doubles is unclear, but similar rumors have been circulating around Putin for a long time. For years, conspiracy theories surfaced online that Putin used people similar to him for security reasons, prompting the Kremlin to fire them.
Putin even said he was presented the chance to use body doubles during his visits to Chechnya in the early 2000s, but he always refused.
Read the original article Business Insider
