Press team without contact to the boss
Prigozhin seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth
6/25/2023 5:22 p.m
For a long time, Prigozhin was seen as a loyal companion of Putin and a fixture in the Russian power structure. But his uprising catapulted the Wagner boss offside. There has been no trace of the mercenary leader for several hours.
After the failed uprising of the Wagner mercenary group, there is no information about the whereabouts of their boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin. According to reports from independent Russian media, the Wagner press office stated that it currently has no contact with Priogoshin. When asked, the Russian-language broadcaster RTVi received the information: “He sends his regards to everyone and will answer questions when he has normal reception again.”
Prigozhin was last seen on Saturday evening. Videos showed him leaving the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in a car. Since then there has been no further information. The mercenary leader had called an uprising against the Russian military and state leadership on Saturday night. His armed men occupied military buildings in Rostov, while other fighters rolled towards Moscow in truck convoys. In the evening he declared the uprising over – in his own words, to avoid bloodshed.
With the mediation of the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko, the Wagner fighters were promised impunity. The Kremlin announced that Prigozhin himself could travel to Belarus. However, commentators believe that the Wagner boss could pay for his criticism with his life, no matter where. Like other critics of Putin before.
Meanwhile, Prigozhin’s fighters continue their retreat. In Lipetsk, 400 kilometers south of Moscow, Governor Igor Artamonov announced on Telegram that the Wagner fighters had left his administrative area. Further south in the Voronezh region, the withdrawal is still ongoing, said Governor Alexander Gusev. “When the situation is finally resolved, we will lift all the restrictions that have been put in place,” he wrote on Telegram. In the afternoon, the area administration announced that traffic on the important north-south route M4 was flowing again.