Lukashenko reveals details of phone call with Putin about killing Wagner chief

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has been talking about the role he played in ending the Wagner Group’s revolt in Russia and the Eastern European dictator says he was the one who talked Vladimir Putin out of ordering Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death. 

The saga of Prigozhin’s 48-hour armed rebellion continues to get more complicated as the days roll on and precious little information has been revealed about the deal sparing the mercenary leader and his men from the consequences of their actions against Putin. 

One major new detail we’ve learned came from Lukashenko himself and it paints him as the level-headed politician that saved Russia from a disastrous civil war. That’s because Putin originally may have wanted to kill Prigozhin but Lukashenko talked him out of it. 

While discussing a call he had with Putin in the midst of Prigozhin’s revolt, Lukashenko explained the Russian President had used a slang phrase often used by criminals when they want to have someone killed roughly translating to “wipe out” according to Reuters. 

Lukashenko said he recognized what Putin’s intentions were, telling army officials and journalists in a June 27th meeting he understood “a brutal decision had been made… to wipe out” the mutineers according to a translation of his comments from Reuters. 

“I suggested to Putin not to rush. ‘Come on,’ I said, ‘Let's talk with Prigozhin, with his commanders.’ To which he told me: 'Listen, Sasha, it's useless. He doesn't even pick up the phone, he doesn’t want to talk to anyone’,” Lukashenko continued. 

Putin had originally vowed to bring the Wagner Group’s mutineers to justice in his first address after Prigozhin launched his attempted rebellion, calling Prigozhin’s actions a mutiny and betrayal: “This is a knife in the back of our country and our people.”

Interestingly, Putin never called out Prigozhin by name but he did say all those involved would be “brought to account” according to an English translation of the address posted to the Kremlin’s website. But what being "brought to account" meant has yet to be seen. 

Prigozhin was allowed to fly off into exile after negotiating an end to the armed rebellion and the Wagner Group soldiers that followed their mercenary captain on his march to Moscow wouldn’t be prosecuted for their treason according to the deal struck with Putin. 

The Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War gave its analysis on the events as relayed by Lukashenko in its June 27th campaign update on the conflict in Ukraine, noting Lukashnko played a successful role in mediating the Russian crisis. 

The Institute for the Study of War also pointed out that Lukashenko’s efforts to intervene in the crisis was likely done to signal to Putin and other high-ranking officials in Moscow he had “the ability to operate successfully and independently within Russian politics.”

Lukashenko’s boasting about the role he played in manipulating Russia’s power brokers was a humiliating blow for Putin according to the think tank, which added even if it was untrue, Putin’s failure to challenge Lukashenko’s version of events made things worse. 

“The fact that Putin has not challenged Lukashenko’s presentation of events and has in fact publicly thanked Lukashenko is even more humiliating,” the war update read.

What will happen now is unclear. On June 27th Lukashenko also told his country’s state media that Prigozhin had flown to Belarus according to CNN, which reported data from FlightRadar24 showed two planes linked to Prigozhin landed near Minsk that day. 

“I see that Prigozhin is already flying on this plane. Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today,” Lukashenko said, according to CNN’s translation from Belarusian state media. 

Satellite imagery taken by Planet Labs reported on by the New York Times shows that construction may be underway at a deserted military base where temporary structures appear to have been put up 80 miles south of Minsk in the town of Asipovichy.

A separate New York Times report noted Lukashenko said he had offered the Wagner fighters who rebelled against Russia a base in Belarus but no details of that offer had been relayed. For now we'll just have to wait and see how the situation unfolds.