Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin hasn’t been seen in public since June 24 and may now be in hiding after Russian federal authorities released photos of a raid on his office. What they found was either a ridiculous set-up by his former pal Vladimir Putin or a disturbing look into the mind of a madman, drunk with power.
Footage aired Wednesday from the raid revealed boxes piled high with rubles, a closet full of wigs, a cache of weapons and a collection of large souvenir sledgehammers — allegedly used by Wagner fighters to beat traitors to death in videos surfaced online.
A giant sledgehammer with “For use in important negotiations” inscribed on it was displayed in one photo.
The images also provided an inside look into the war chief’s swanky digs complete with a personal helicopter and large indoor pool. Russian authorities found roughly 600 million rubles ($6.58 million) at his properties.
Also found were several million dollars in gold bars that have since been returned to Prigozhin. The Wagner boss claims the money was for the families of Wagner casualties.
No official explanation for what the sledgehammers were used for was forthcoming.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko held a press conference on Thursday and said he assumes that Prigozhin was probably in St. Petersburg but was no longer in Belarus. Lukashenko didn’t say if Prigozhin was on the run, but he made it clear that he and Putin were on the same page.
When Lukashenko was said to have brokered a deal to end Prigozhin’s would-be insurrection in Russia last month, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the agreement came about because Prigozhin and Lukashenko had known each other “personally for a long time, for about 20 years.”
But on Thursday, Lukashenko said that it was Putin who was Prigozhin’s longtime friend, who knew him “much better than I do and knows him longer than I do, about 30 years.”
Neither leader seems too keen on being Prigozhin’s best friend now.
Russian state TV called Prigozhin a “traitor” — a bad sign for the Wagner chief’s continued good health.
“Nobody planned to close this case. The investigation (into the mutiny) is ongoing,” said Petrov.
He said investigators had concluded that a video used by Prigozhin as a pretext to start the mutiny, which had shown an alleged Russian strike on a mercenary camp, was a fake.
State TV broadcast images of armed Russian law enforcers entering Prigozhin’s office. St Petersburg’s Fontanka news outlet had reported that raids on properties linked to Prigozhin were conducted on June 24.
“I consider that the creation of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s image as a people’s hero was all done by media fed by Yevgeny Prigozhin,” said Petrov, referring to media outlets financed by Prigozhin. “After it failed, they quickly closed and fled.”
He said cash worth 600 million roubles ($6.6 million) had been found in Prigozhin’s properties.
Prigozhin still has command of several thousand mercenaries — as long as he can pay them. Their personal loyalty is suspect, but the same could be said for much of the regular army which, strangely, didn’t lift a finger when Prigozhim occupied Rostov-on-Don and sent a convoy toward Moscow.
The next few days should tell the tale of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s ultimate downfall.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member