Prigozhin didn’t request security guarantees – Lukashenko

The late chief of the Wagner private military company, Evgeny Prigozhin, never sought security guarantees from Minsk, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told journalists on Friday. 

As reported by Belarusian state news agency BelTA, Lukashenko insisted that he was not responsible for Prigozhin’s personal safety and that they never held any discussion on the matter. 

Instead, Lukashenko stated that he had warned Prigozhin on two separate occasions – including when he launched a march on Moscow – that he was risking his own safety as well as the safety of those around him. 

The president claimed there had only been two topics on the agenda during negotiations with Prigozhin amid his short-lived mutiny in July. The first was the cessation of criminal cases against Wagner members, while the second was the transfer of the PMC’s forces to Belarus and security guarantees once they arrived there. 

“If you guys are afraid of something, I will talk to [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, we will bring you over to Belarus where we can guarantee your safety,” Lukashenko recalled telling Prigozhin as he helped broker the agreement.  

The Belarusian leader stressed that the Wagner chief had never asked him to deal with any aspects related to his personal security. 

Lukashenko also insisted that Putin had nothing to do with the incident that apparently led to Prigozhin’s death, despite sections of the media attempting to pin the blame on the Russian leader.   

“I can’t say who did it. I wouldn’t even become a lawyer for my older brother,” Lukashenko said. “However, I know Putin. He is prudent, very calm, and is even rather slow in making decisions on other, less complex issues.” 

“That’s why I can’t imagine that Putin is behind this,” the Belarusian leader added, claiming that if the plane crash was the result of sabotage, it was “too rough” and an example of “unprofessional work.”

Prigozhin is believed to have died on Wednesday along with six other Wagner leaders when an Embraer private jet traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed in Russia’s Tver Region. All seven passengers on board, as well as three crew members, perished in the crash. Authorities are still working to identify the bodies, but it is presumed that Prigozhin is among them. 

Investigators have launched a probe into the incident but no official statements have yet been made as to the cause of the crash. However, debris belonging to the Embraer aircraft has been found kilometers away from the main crash site, indicating that the plane may have fragmented at high altitude.