The headquarters of the paramilitary group Wagner in Russia, located in Saint Petersburg (northwest), assured Monday that it continued to operate “normally”, two days after the abortive rebellion of its leader Yevgeny Prigojine. “Despite the events that have taken place, the Center continues to function ‘normally’, in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation!” Wagner said in a statement, as the fate of the group — dismantling, integration into the army or status quo?– remains uncertain.
“Recruitment continues”, assures Wagner
Earlier Monday, sources inside Wagner said the group was continuing to recruit in several regions. “Recruitment continues,” an employee of the city of Novosibirsk, in Siberia, told the official TASS news agency.
In front of the building hosting the group in Novosibirsk, the advertising posters bearing the image of Wagner were again hung on Monday, according to TASS, after being removed on Saturday. “We work by appointment, every day,” an employee in the city of Tyumen, 2,000 km east of Moscow, also confirmed to TASS.
The contours of the agreement reached on Saturday evening between Evguéni Prigojine and Moscow to resolve the unprecedented crisis caused by Wagner’s armed rebellion remain unclear at this stage. The Kremlin assures that no Wagner fighter who followed Evguéni Prigojine in his revolt will be prosecuted, but no one knows what will really happen to the organization. The Kremlin has assured that Yevgeny Prigojine will visit Belarus, but he has not reappeared in public since the end of the coup.
Numerous recruitments in Russian prisons
Earlier on Monday, the chairman of the Duma’s committee on legislation and state-building, Pavel Krasheninnikov, announced that those convicted by Russian courts can no longer be recruited by “private military organizations” such as Wagner. .
Wagner had however recruited many fighters in Russian prisons, with the approval of the government, to send them to the front in Ukraine, but for several months the Kremlin had theoretically prohibited such a practice.
Before, these groups “could recruit those who were convicted and conclude contracts with them. Now a different procedure has been adopted according to which contracts are concluded only with the Ministry of Defense”, Pavel Krasheninnikov told reporters. , quoted by the Interfax agency.