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Russian defense official, FSB chief took part in talks with Prigozhin, says Lukashenko

Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov played a major role in organizing the talks, the Belarusian leader said

MINSK, June 27. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel-General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov took part in the talks with Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) founder Yevgeny Prigozhin during the Wagnerites’ mutiny, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday.

Deputy Defense Minister Yevkurov played a major role in organizing the talks, the Belarusian leader said.

"No one else participated in these talks at the first stage, except for Yevkurov and FSB Director Bortnikov," the state-run BelTA news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying.

The Telegram channel of Wagner private military company founder Yevgeny Prigozhin posted several audio records with his statements on the evening of June 23, in which he claimed that strikes had allegedly been delivered against his formations and accused the country’s military leadership of that. The Russian Defense Ministry dismissed this information as false. The units of the Wagner private military company that supported Prigozhin moved towards the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and Moscow.

In the wake of this, the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia opened a criminal case into a call for an armed mutiny. In a televised address to the nation on June 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Wagnerites’ actions a betrayal. Later, upon agreement with the Russian leader, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko held negotiations with Prigozhin, following which the Wagner private military company pulled back its military columns and returned to its field camps. The FSB press office announced on June 27 that the criminal case had been terminated.