Russia closes the criminal case against Prigozhin and the Wagner Group – DW – 06/27/2023

he Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB) of Russia announced this Tuesday (06.27.2023) that it has closed the criminal case of armed rebellion against Wagner Paramilitary GroupDirected by Yevgeny Prigozhinwhich shook the Kremlin over the weekend by aborting a rebellion in less than 24 hours, when mercenary forces were 200 kilometers from Moscow.

“The criminal case initiated by the armed insurrection of the Wagner Group” was archived this Tuesday, the FSB said in a statement carried by the state-run Tass news agency. The memorandum adds that “during the investigation of the criminal case of armed rebellion, it was established that on June 24 its participants stopped actions aimed directly at the commission of that crime.”

On Friday evening, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office opened the case under Article 279 of the Russian Penal Code, when Prigozhin and his men announced that they had crossed the Russian border in Rostov from Ukraine and started a “march for justice” towards Moscow, after denouncing the Russian army’s attack on a mercenary camp in the rear. Russian.

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The head of the Wagner Group, a private military company that is illegal in Russia but is supplied by the Defense Ministry, denounced the disastrous management of Russia’s military leadership, headed by the minister of that portfolio, Sergei Shoigu, and the head of state of Major, Valery Gerasimov. On Saturday evening, Prigozhin ordered his forces to return to their camps after reaching an agreement.

On the same Tuesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that “preparations” were underway to transfer “heavy” military equipment from Wagner to the army. Russia took this step after Vladimir Putin The mercenaries gave three exits last night Who rebelled: return home, go into exile in Belarus or sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense.

In practice, this means dismantling Wagner, as it has been known since its inception in 2014, following the outbreak of the conflict in Donbass, in eastern Ukraine.

DZC (EFE, AFP)