The Wagner Rebellion

Yevgeny Prigozhin/Dmitry Peskov AP 

Kremlin: Criminal investigation against Prigozhin is closed - the Wagner leader moves to Belarus  

 

Kremlin will not prosecute Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. This is what Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says in a first statement since the paramilitary group halted its advance towards Moscow, Reuters reports. 

 

Prigozhin was suspected of inciting armed mutiny, but that criminal investigation is now closed. Nor will any Wagner soldiers who participated in Saturday's march be prosecuted.  

 

According to the agreement that has been negotiated during the day, the Kremlin states that Prigozhin will move to Belarus. The Kremlin believes it should "subdue the rebellious mood".  

 

Putin. Gavriil Grigorov / AP  

 

Analysis: The bizarre is not over – Vladimir Putin must crack down on the Wagner leader  

 

The "incredibly bizarre" turn of events has taken another extraordinary turn with the Wagner Group agreeing to halt its advance towards Moscow. This is written by Sky News defense reporter Deborah Haynes.  

 

"Although it may feel like an anticlimax, this is not the end of the crisis for Putin," she writes.  

 

Nor does Danish TV2's correspondent Claus Borg Reinhold believe that the conflict between Putin and Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is over.  

 

- Putin must crack down on this. It would surprise me very much if there are no consequences for Prigozhin after all this, he says.  

 

Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy researcher at the Brookings Institution, told the BBC that the agreement "made sense" from Prigozhin's perspective.  

 

"But several questions remain, including what kind of guarantees Prigozhin was offered and what prospects he has for staying alive," says O'Hanlon.