Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the plane crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin was too unsophisticated to have been an assassination plot by Vladimir Putin, even as he said he warned the Wagner leader his life was in danger.
(Bloomberg) — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the plane crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin was too unsophisticated to have been an assassination plot by Vladimir Putin, even as he said he warned the Wagner leader his life was in danger.
“I can’t imagine that Putin did it, that Putin is to blame,” Lukashenko said Friday during a visit to a university in the capital, Minsk. “It’s too crude, unprofessional work.”
Lukashenko said he told Prigozhin and Wagner’s No. 2, Dmitry Utkin, about the threat to their lives when the men visited him in Belarus following the mercenary group’s mutiny in Russia. “I categorically warned them both – watch out, guys,” he said.
Lukashenko is Putin’s closest ally and backs his war in Ukraine, allowing Russian troops to invade from Belarusian territory last year. He brokered the deal that persuaded Prigozhin to end his mutiny in June as Wagner forces came within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow, posing the greatest threat to the Russian president’s nearly quarter-century rule.
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Prigozhin agreed to go to Belarus as part of the deal, and thousands of Wagner troops joined him there, setting up camp and helping to train Belarusian soldiers. Lukashenko said Belarus would continue to host the private military company.
“Wagner lived, Wagner lives, and Wagner will live in Belarus, regardless of whether anyone is unhappy about it,” he said. A core group will remain stationed in the country, and “up to 10,000” would be in Belarus within a few days if needed, he said.
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