MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed as speculation and gossip reports in some media that Deputy Commander of Russia’s Joint Group of Forces in Ukraine Sergey Surovikin allegedly knew about the upcoming armed mutiny in advance.

"I think that now there will be a lot of gossip, speculation on this issue [the armed mutiny] and so on. I think this is one of such examples," he told reporters when asked to comment on such articles.

On the evening of June 23, several audio recordings were posted on the Telegram channel of Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. In particular, he claimed that his units had come under attack, blaming the Russian military. The Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a criminal probe into calls for armed mutiny. In turn, the Russian Defense Ministry slammed the Wagner boss’ allegations of a strike on the PMC’s "rear camps" as fake news. The PMC units that supported Prigozhin headed to Rostov-on-Don and then turned toward Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a televised address to the nation on Saturday, described the Wagner group’s actions as armed mutiny and a betrayal, vowing to take tough measures against the mutineers.

Later on Saturday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in coordination with Putin, held talks with Prigozhin, resulting in the PMC standing down, turning its units around, and retreating to their base camps. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a criminal case against the Wagner chief would be dropped, while Prigozhin himself would go to Belarus. In addition, the Russian authorities pledged not to prosecute those Wagner PMC fighters who took part in the mutiny in light of their "frontline achievements." On Tuesday, the FSB’s press office announced said that criminal case had been dropped.