The Kremlin and its proxies rebuffed suggestions that it was responsible for destroying a plane that reportedly carried the chief of the Wagner mercenary group.
As Russia’s president reasserts control after a failed mutiny, he wants to sideline the Wagner leader while keeping its fighters — who have started training troops in Belarus — working for him.
Two weeks after the Wagner mercenary group’s rebellion against Russian military leadership, its fate is as murky as ever — as is the purpose of a newly revived military base in Belarus.
After the mercenary boss staged a brief insurrection in Russia, the leader of Belarus said his country had taken him in, but now says the Wagner leader was in St. Petersburg and then “maybe he went to Moscow.”