Yevgeny Prigozhin is ‘probably dead or in jail’ claims top US official (Picture: Rex/Getty)
Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin who staged a coup against Vladimir Putin is likely dead or in jail, a former US military leader has said.
The mercenary leader ordered his soldiers to travel towards Moscow in a failed rebellion against the Kremlin in late June.
The Russian president said his former caterer’s actions amounted to ‘armed mutiny’, and Prigozhin is now feared dead by experts.
He has not been seen in public since, and there has been speculation as to whether he is still in Russia, or in neighbouring country Belarus.
Retired General Robert Abrams told ABC News: ‘My personal assessment is that I doubt we’ll see Prigozhin ever again publicly.
‘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.’
When asked if he thought the former caterer to the Russian premier was still alive, Mr Abrams said: ‘I personally don’t think he is, and if he is, he’s in a prison somewhere.’
Putin allegedly met Prigozhin five days after the failed coup in Moscow, but Mr Abrams believes this was staged.
Prigozhin has not been seen in public since the botched rebellion (Picture: AP)
‘I would be surprised if we actually see proof of life that Putin met with Prigozhin, and I think it’s highly staged,’ he said.
During the meeting Putin ‘listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them options for further employment’, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
But this did not stop Putin calling his former comrade a traitor, saying he ‘betrayed the Russian people’.
Charges against Prigozhin and the Wagner forces were dropped by the Kremlin to avoid ‘bloodshed’ – but the Wagner Group leader was forced to exile to Belarus.
The mercenary leader ordered his soldiers to travel towards Moscow (Picture: AP)
Putin branded his former caterer as a ‘traitor to the Russian people’ (Picture: AP)
Yet Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko has said Prigozhin is not in ‘his territory’.
He told reporters : ‘As for Prigozhin, he is in St Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus.’
A business jet linked to Prigozhin left St Petersburg for Moscow, and was heading for southern Russia, according to flight tracking data.
But it was not clear if the mercenary chief was on board the plane.
Lukashenko said an offer for Wagner to station some of its fighters in Belarus – a prospect that has alarmed neighbouring Nato countries – still stands.
Separately, Russia has said the for-hire soldiers can go to Belarus, sign up with its regular armed forces or demobilise.
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