Criminal charges against Prigozhin 'not dropped' even after exile to Belarus

Head of the Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin is still under investigation and the charges against him for organising armed rebellion have not been dropped, reported Russian news agencies on Monday, even after the mercenary group agreed to a deal with the Kremlin to end the mutiny.

"The criminal case against (Yevgeny) Prigozhin has not been dropped," a source in the prosecutor's office was quoted as saying by the three main Russian news agencies.

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The main state news service of Russia, Ria Novosti, on Monday citing the source confirmed that the charges against Prigozhin have not been dropped. Russian business newspaper Kommersant further reported that Prigozhin is still being investigated by Russia’s main security service FSB and said “not enough time has passed to take another decision”.

Since he evacuated the southern army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, Prigozhin has not been seen or heard anywhere. At the time when the deal was finalised, the Kremlin had stated that all charges against Prigozhin will be dropped after the latter agreed to leave for Belarus.

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Wagner to continue operations in Mali, C.Africa, says Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday said that the country's Wagner mercenary group willcontinue its operations in the Central African Republic and Mali. Wagner members "are working there as instructors. This work, of course, will continue," said Lavrov in an interview with RT, adding that the rebellion will not impact the ties of Russia with "partners and friends".

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visits troops

The images of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visiting troops were released on Monday which marked the first public appearance of the minister since Prigozhin rebelled against the senior military leadership of the country.

In the video shared by the defence ministry, Shoigu is seen inspecting a Russian command point and receiving a report on the progress made by Russia in the war against Ukraine from subordinates.

Rybar, which is a social media channel run by the country's former defence ministry press secretary, said that it appeared that the video was filmed when the defence minister visited the Belgorod region, which is on Ukraine's border, before Prigozhin’s revolt.

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There were speculations that Russian President Vladimir Putin had given a nod to the removal of Shoigu as part of a deal finalised with Prigozhin to end the rebellion, however, it was denied by the Kremlin.

As per media reports, the video may be a way to show that the business has returned to normalcy just two days after Wagner group's armed forces marched most of the way to Moscow, posing a threat to Putin's regime.

On Monday, the defence ministry said that Shoigu was given a report about “the current situation, (the) nature of the enemy’s activities and fulfilment of the (army’s) combat tasks in the main tactical directions” from Yevgeny Nikiforov, who is the commander of Russia’s Western Military District.

Shoigu appreciated the army for its “high effectiveness” and ordered it to “uncover the enemy’s plans and stop them from being realised”.

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