As the days go by, new details emerge of the failed mutiny of the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin against the power in Russia and how Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko managed to end the uprising of the Russian paramilitary group, over the weekend.
On Tuesday, Lukashenko gave an hour-by-hour account of how the negotiations with Prigozhin went. More details of that story emerged Wednesday. The Belarusian president said he convinced Putin not to "annihilate" Prigozhin and his men when Putin called on him on Saturday to intercede and defuse the rebellion.
In describing his conversation with Putin, Lukashenko used the phrase in Russian criminal jargon to kill someone, equivalent to the expression "annihilate."
the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Photo: Reuters
"I also understood," Lukashenko said, "a brutal decision had been taken to annihilate the mutineers," he said at a meeting with his army officers and journalists.
"I suggested to Putin not to rush. ' Come on,' I said, 'Let's talk to Prigozhin, to his commanders. To which he replied, 'Listen, Sasha, it's useless. He doesn't even answer the phone, he doesn't want to talk to anyone,'" Lukashenko added.
Prigozhin forward his plans
According to The Wall Street Journal, Yevgeny Prigozhin, planned to capture Russian military leaders as part of the rebellion he launched last weekend and advanced after Russian intelligence discovered his plan.
Western sources cited by the Journal indicated that Prigozhin originally planned to capture Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov during a visit to a border area with Ukraine, but the Russian secret services uncovered the plan two days before his execution.
Western intelligence agencies were also aware of Wagner's leader's plans and considered him to have a chance of success, which fell apart when the conspiracy leaked and forced to improvise an alternative.
The WSJ notes that Western sources believe Prigozhin had communicated his intentions to Russian General Sergei Surovikin, a report also published by The New York Times and which has been described as "speculation" by the Kremlin.
According to the sources of the business daily, Prigozhin had accumulated weapons and ammunition and hoped that part of the Russian Armed Forces would join the mutiny and rebel against their commanders.
After learning that his plan had been leaked, the head of the mercenary group advanced his movements and captured the city of Rostov, and then sent a column in the direction of Moscow, which stopped after negotiations in which the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, mediated.
Hour by hour
This is the chronology of these events, which occurred on Saturday, according to Lukashenko's version:
-08.00 hs: alarming information
"Alarming information about the situation in Russia is beginning to arrive," according to Lukashenko, who was informed by the Federal Security Service and the State Security Committee that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to talk to him.
The Wagner group takes the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. Photo: Reuters
-10.10 am: Putin ready to crush the rebels
Putin reports "exhaustively on the situation taking place in Russia," said Lukashenko, who asked his Russian counterpart "not to rush", since Putin was ready to "crush" the rebels. Lukashenko convinces him to enter into negotiations with Prigozhin.
The Kremlin chief also said that Wagner's boss did not answer the phone and did not want to talk to anyone.
11.00 a.m.: Prigozhin answers the phone
The Belarusian president asks Putin how to communicate with Prigozhin and establishes three channels of communication with Wagner's boss around noon: "He answered immediately."
Prigozhin expresses his demands very excitedly: "The first round of talks lasted 30 minutes between swear words exclusively. There were ten times more bad words than normal lexicon," Lukashenko said.
Wagner's boss demands the surrender of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, whom he accuses of having betrayed Russia and being responsible for the deaths of thousands of soldiers in Ukraine.
He also asks for an appointment with Putin.
Lukashenko replies that "no one will hand over either Shoigu or Gerasimov under these conditions."
"You know Putin as well as I do, he's not going to meet you or answer you on the phone under these circumstances," he said.
Lukashenko's threat
After two rounds of talks, Lukashenko understands that Prigozhin is ready to give up his demands and warns him that if at least one civilian were killed, negotiations would be concluded immediately.
In addition, he warns him that if the advance of the Wagnerites in the direction of Moscow continued, Minsk would send a brigade to defend the Russian capital "as in 1941", in reference to World War II.
Meanwhile, Russian regular forces were preparing several lines of defense with more than 10,000 troops in order to defend Moscow.
Lukashenko warns Wagner's boss that the uprising may lead to bloodshed and that Russia has enough forces to "crush him like a bedbug" despite the fact that the Russian army "is busy on the Ukrainian front."
16.00: 200 km from Moscow, Prigozhin accepts the conditions
Prigozhin conveys to Lukashenko that he is ready to accept the conditions and asks him for advice on how to avoid an attack by regular Russian forces against the column of mercenaries, already located 200 kilometers from Moscow.
The Belarusian president establishes contacts with the director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB), Alexander Bortnikov, to coordinate the withdrawal of the Wagnerites.
It also offers "guarantees of total security" to Wagner's boss that include transfer to Belarus for him and his fighters.
20.00 hs: Final
At approximately 20.00 the talks conclude. Prigozhin coordinates with Bortnikov the withdrawal of his men. The column of the Wagner group turns around and begins the return to its bases from Moscow and the city of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, which the Wagnerites had taken under their control.
EFE
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