Less than a month after leaving the trembling Kremlin as its Wagner mercenaries marched on Moscow, leaked photographs of Yevgeny Prigozhin in his underwear in a tent have been leaked online amid an ongoing campaign to discredit the exiled mutineer.
While Vladimir Putin – whose grip on power is seen by many to have been severely weakened by the popular mercenary boss’ armed rebellion – has sought to insist that Wagner never really existed, footage showing a Mr. Prigozhin looking disheveled in a state of semi-nudity appeared on Telegram.
In the latest bizarre twist in the saga, the president insisted that the Kommersant newspaper on Friday that the private military company ‘simply does not exist’ as a legal entity under Russian law – while its emboldened ally Alexander Lukashenko claimed some of the exiled mercenaries were now training the Belarusian army.
While the latter’s remarks indicated the promulgation of at least part of the agreement reached by MM. Lukashenko and Prigozhin to get him and his fighters to resettle in Belarus, halting their armed advance less than 200 kilometers from Moscow last month, efforts to undermine the mercenary leader appeared to be continuing.
Just days after a pro-Kremlin outlet published photographs purportedly seized during a raid on Mr Prigozhin’s mansion in St Petersburg showing him wearing various bizarre disguises such as long wigs and tacky beards, a new image began circulating on Russian social media on Friday. .
The photo appears to show Mr Prigozhin sitting in a tent wearing Y-fronts and a T-shirt, sparking fresh speculation about his whereabouts after weeks of uncertainty.
In claims that appear to match Minsk’s claim that Wagner fighters are instructing the Belarusian army at a camp near Osipovichi – about 50 miles from the capital – the pro-Russian Telegram account that posted the image for the first time claimed its metadata showed it was taken on July 12, according to Belarusian monitoring group Gayun, which noted similarities to other camp photos.
The tent floors appear to match those shown in photographs taken last week during an official visit to the once disused Osipovichi camp, during which satellite images reported by Radio Free Europe and the BBC appeared to show dozens of newly erected tents and other structures.
Leaked photo of Yevgeny Prigozhin fuels new speculation about his fate
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Despite activity at the camp and Mr Prigozhin’s potential presence, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters as recently as Tuesday that the alliance had not witnessed “any deployment or movement of Wagner forces in Belarus”.
Although a long-standing foreign policy tool of his own creation, Mr. Putin appears to have urgently sought to disarm the private military company ever since its fighters seized the city of Rostov- on-Don, in southern Russia, last month and threatened Moscow.
In remarks denouncing the failed mutiny as “high treason,” the Russian president toed a cautious line in a televised speech last month in which he claimed that the mercenaries – whose battlefield prestige in Ukraine has bolstered their national popularity – had been “cheated into a criminal adventure”, without specifically referring to those of Mr. Prigozhin.
Criticizing what he called “a stab in the back of the troops and people of Russia”, Mr Putin insisted, however, that Wagner’s troops were free to join the Russian army, return to their families or to leave Russia for Belarus.
Putin appeals to Russian public after Wagner mutiny
The extraordinary mutiny came after Wagner withdrew from Bakhmut, which he seized from Ukraine after months of bloody attrition in the frontline city of Donetsk, with Mr Prigozhin frequently expressing his anger at a alleged lack of ammunition and coordination by Russian military leaders.
The 62-year-old’s vitriolic criticism surprised many observers given their apparent disregard for the Kremlin’s generally rigid grip on its Ukraine war narrative, and was widely interpreted as a sign of stature. growing policy of the former convict in Russia.
A former hot dog salesman, Mr Prigozhin rose to fame attracting the attention and favors of the Russian President while working as a restauranteur, both men having grown up in St Petersburg.
He benefited from large state loans while growing his business under Mr Putin’s watch, winning millions of pounds in contracts to supply meals to state schools, the Kremlin and the Russian army – also attracting the attention of the Anti-Corruption Foundation of imprisoned opposition figure Alexei Navalny.
Yevgeny Prigozhin seized the city of Rostov-on-Don last month
(PRIGOZHIN PRESS OFFICE)
Claiming to have served 10 years in prison during the last throes of the Soviet Union, apparently after the violent robbery of a woman he suffocated, Mr. Prigozhin was allowed by Mr. Putin to create Wagner in 2014, despite the Russian constitution prohibiting such groups.
After exploits in the Donbass and Syria, while fighting for national leaders and warlords in Africa in exchange for lucrative sums and assets, Wagner became a household name during the Ukrainian War due to his relative prestige compared to the failing Russian army. – and its apparent brutality.
While Mr Prigozhin’s prison recruitment drive fueling ‘human wave’ attacks has been held largely responsible for Wagner’s gains at Bakhmut, footage has also circulated of his fighters bludgeoning a suspected deserter to death with a hammer , a symbolism since adopted by Mr. Prigozhin himself.
Having long pursued plausible deniability about Wagner, seeking to discredit Mr Prigozhin following his short-lived mutiny, Mr Putin reversed his position seeking to claim ultimate responsibility for the group, as he insisted on the fact that the salaries of the fighters had come out of the state coffers. .