Working as normal despite mutiny

The headquarters of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led a mutiny over the weekend that rattled President Vladimir Putin’s rule, said yesterday it was working in “normal mode.”

The statement from the office came as the fate of Wagner was uncertain after the rebellion and as Russia appeared to take a business-as-usual approach.

“Despite events that have taken place, the centre continues to work in normal mode in accordance to the law of the Russian Federation,” the office, based in Russia’s second city of Saint Petersburg, said.

It said Wagner has “worked for the future of Russia” and thanked its supporters, reports AFP.

Wagner’s chief Prigozhin has not been seen since Saturday, but the Kremlin said he will be sent to neighbouring Belarus after a Minsk-brokered deal to halt his rebellion.

Russia’s intelligence services are investigating whether Western spy agencies played a role in the aborted mutiny by armed Wagner mercenary fighters on Saturday, the TASS news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying yesterday.

The group will continue operations in Mali and the Central African Republic, Lavrov said.

Wagner members “are working there as instructors. This work, of course, will continue,” Lavrov said in an interview with RT, adding that the revolt would not affect Russia’s ties with “partners and friends”.

Lavrov said Europe and France in particular had “abandoned” the two African countries, which had in turn asked Russia and Wagner to provide military instructors and “to ensure the security of their leaders”.

Western powers believe the Wagner group is used to promote Russia’s influence abroad and have accused the group of torture and exploiting natural resources.

Wagner, whose very existence Moscow denied until its Ukraine offensive, said it had “created opportunities for the (self) realisation of talented people from all over the country”.

It said that on top of developing “domestic drones”, it had also worked on “preparing information fighters and countering the information war”.

GBDESK//