It is possible that Putin will kill Prigozhin in Belarus – CNN
CNN journalists believe that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will not forgive Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, for his rebellion.
Source: former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jean Dougherty, quoted by the news outlet
Quote from Dougherty: "Putin doesn’t forgive traitors. Even if Putin says, ‘Prigozhin, you go to Belarus,’ he is still a traitor and I think Putin will never forgive that…"
"If I were Putin, I would be worried about those people on the streets of Rostov cheering the Wagner people as they leave.
Why are average Russians on the street cheering people who just tried to carry out a coup?" Dougherty said. "That means that maybe they support them or they like them. Whatever it is, it’s really bad news for Putin."
Details: She added that it was entirely possible that Prigozhin would "be killed in Belarus", but it was a difficult dilemma for Moscow because as long as Prigozhin "has some type of support, he is a threat, regardless of where he is".
Previously: On Saturday evening, the press service of the self-proclaimed president of Belarus announced that Aleksandr Lukashenko held talks with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Private Military Company, and he accepted the proposal to stop the movement of the Wagnerites on the territory of Russia.
After that, Prigozhin declared that his mercenaries were turning their convoys around and going in the opposite direction to the field camps.
Later, the Kremlin announced that the criminal case against Prigozhin would be closed and he would "go to Belarus."
Background:
- On the evening of 23 June, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that the regular Russian army had launched a missile strike on the Wagner mercenaries’ rear camps. He therefore deployed 25,000 of his mercenaries "to restore justice".
- Prigozhin claimed that his forces had taken control of military facilities in Rostov-on-Don, including the air base, and were heading "to Moscow" and that his soldiers had shot down three Russian helicopters. Wagner mercenaries also seized military facilities in the Russian city of Voronezh.
- In an emergency address on 24 June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was "fighting for survival" and that attempts were being made to "organise a rebellion" in the country.
- A criminal case was opened against Prigozhin for "organisation of an armed rebellion", Article 279 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation against him provides imprisonment from 12 to 20 years.
- On the afternoon of 24 June, Russian media reported that the Office of the President of the Russian Federation anticipated that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group fighters were likely to reach Moscow’s outskirts in the next few hours, with fighting expected near Russia’s capital. Ukrainian intelligence had information that Putin had urgently left Moscow for his residence in Valdai.
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