Exiled Wagner Group boss returns to Russia to collect confiscated weapons
The founder of the Wagner mercenary group, who was exiled after staging a botched armed mutiny against Russia’s military brass, was invited back into the country to collect his massive cache of weapons — just days after reclaiming $100 million seized last month.
Businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin was seen Tuesday evening arriving in a BMW 7 Series at the FSB office in St. Petersburg, accompanied by his security detail traveling in a Land Cruiser, according to the local news outlet Fontanka.ru.
Just hours earlier, Prigozhin had been formally invited by Russia’s security services to pick up his arsenal of guns, which had been confiscated during a search of his country estate in a tony suburb of St. Petersburg on June 24.
FSB operatives were said to have handed back two Saiga rifles, an Austrian Mannlicher rifle, and a smattering of other rifles and handguns.
Prigozhin, 62, was also reunited with a Glock pistol engraved with his name that had been gifted to him by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu before their public falling-out over the Ukraine war.
After a short time, Prigozhin emerged from the FSB building on Liteyniy Avenue, followed by his security guards carrying his weapons. Once the guns were placed in the car, the visitors left, Fontanka reported.
It was not immediately known whether Prigozhin then immediately resumed his exile in Belarus, where he retreated after the aborted rebellion.
Two days before Prigozhin’s trip to St. Petersburg, he was reportedly given back more than $100 million in cash and gold bars that were seized by Russian law enforcement officials from a minivan and another vehicle during the Wagner Group’s short-lived insurrection.
The assets weighed “a couple of tons” and were handed to Prigozhin’s driver, who had been given power of attorney, on Sunday, reported Fontanka, citing anonymous sources.
Prigozhin previously said the money had been set aside to pay salaries to members of his private army and compensate the families of fighters killed in action in Ukraine.
Earlier this week, Prigozhin resurfaced to release a new audio message thanking Wagner Group’s supporters and promising new “victories on the front lines.”
Those were Prigozhin’s first public comments since he ordered his fighters to march toward Moscow as part of an alleged plan to kidnap Russia’s top military leaders, including Shoigu.
In his message Monday, Prigozhin said Wagner’s “March of Justice” was “aimed at fighting traitors and mobilizing our society.”
Prigozhin ultimately pulled the plug on the mutiny after hammering out a deal with the Kremlin as part of which he would not face criminal charges if he agreed to decamp to Belarus.
