Kremlin Says Has No Information About Prigozhin's Whereabouts

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th July, 2023) The Kremlin has no information on whether Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group private military company (PMC), is in Russia now, nor does it comment on information about the alleged departure of hundreds of Wagner fighters from the Central African Republic (CAR), spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

On July 6, African media reported that more than 500 Wagner fighters had been demobilized in the car cities of Birao, Moyen-Sido and Batangafo.

"I can't comment on this issue," Peskov said when asked if the Kremlin had any information about the possible reasons for such a mass departure of fighters from the CAR.

He added that he also had no information about Prigozhin's whereabouts.

"I can't say anything here, we don't have any information on this, and I have nothing to add to what we said earlier," Peskov said, when asked if Prigozhin was in Russia, as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said a day earlier.

On Thursday, Lukashenko said that Prigozhin was not in Belarus, but in St. Petersburg. He added that the Belarusian authorities were not setting up camps for the PMC, but had offered the Wagner fighters several former Soviet-era military camps if they agreed. But the PMC had a different view of their accommodation, Lukashenko said.

The Wagner Group, led by Prigozhin, seized an army headquarters in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on the night of June 23 and moved toward Moscow the following day. Prigozhin portrayed his actions as a response to the Russian Defense Ministry's alleged attack on his group's field camps, which the ministry denied. Prigozhin agreed to end the mutiny after negotiations with Lukashenko, who acted at Putin's request. Last week, Lukashenko confirmed that Prigozhin had arrived in Belarus.