Russian mercenary chief and short-lived mutineer Yevgeny Prigozhin is tipped to be either dead or in a Russian prison cell following The Wagner Group’s rebellion last month, according to a former top US military official.
Retired General Robert Abrams has dismissed a reported Kremlin meeting held five days after the 24-hour mutiny by Wagner forces attended by Prigozhin and Putin.
Mr Abrams believes the face-to-face was likely “staged” and the Wagner CEO has already been silenced in some form or another.
He said: “My personal assessment is that I doubt we’ll see Prigozhin ever again publicly.
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“I think he’ll either be put in hiding, or sent to prison, or dealt with some other way, but I doubt we’ll ever see him again.”
On the supposed meeting at the Kremlin, the General argued: “I’d be surprised if we actually see proof of life that Putin met with Prigozhin, and I think it’s highly staged.”
When asked whether Prigozhin could still be alive, General Abrams replied: “I personally don’t think he is, and if he is, he’s in a prison somewhere.”
The Mirror reported that during the meeting Putin offered an “assessment” of Wagner’s actions on the battlefield in Ukraine and “of the events of June 24”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed Putin also “listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them options for further employment”.
Prigozhin had marched his men towards Moscow following long-simmering conflict with the Russian military’s top brass.
But he ended the uprising after a deal was brokered for the ex-jailbird to be exiled in Belarus as the Kremlin thrashed out plans for Wagner’s future.
Following the botched rebellion, Putin slammed Prigozhin as a traitor but the Kremlin later announced charges against him and his Wagner forces will be dropped by Russian authorities to avoid “bloodshed”.
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Russia’s defence ministry published a video featuring military chief General Valery Gerasimov – the first time he has been shown since the rebellion aimed to oust him.
Dmitry Peskov, President Putin’s press secretary, said Wagner mercenaries who wish to sign a Ministry of Defence contract can do so.
“We left on June 23 for the march of justice,” Prigozhin said in an audio message following the coup.
“In a day we travelled, not reaching 200 km, to Moscow.
“During this time, we have not shed a single drop of the blood of our fighters.
“Now the moment has come when blood could be shed, therefore, realising all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed on one of the sides, we turn our columns around and return in the opposite direction to the field camps, according to the plan.”
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