The St Petersburg palace of Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has been raided by Russian safety providers.
The FSB says it discovered weapons, ammunition, gold bars, a stuffed alligator and a cabinet filled with wigs on the opulent residence the mercenary chief was pressured to desert after his aborted coup try final month.
The pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia revealed pictures and video of the raid yesterday, which additionally turned up apparently faux passports and a framed photograph allegedly displaying the severed heads of Prigozhin’s enemies.
Elsewhere within the lavish residence, footage confirmed a grand piano on the base of a spiral marble staircase, in addition to a spa and sauna space, and personal indoor swimming pool.
An outsized sledgehammer inscribed with the phrases “for use in important negotiations” was additionally displayed in what seems to be the billiards room.
There additionally seemed to be a personal prayer room, adorned with a number of non secular icons from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Huge quantities of money in varied currencies had been found on the residence, the FSB mentioned, as was a army uniform replete with round two dozen medals.
Prigozhin has been in Belarus since 24 June after he led a failed mutiny towards the Kremlin which noticed his Wagner mercenaries march on Moscow.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal which noticed Prigozhin, who was once generally known as “Putin’s chef”, call-off the riot and go away Russia for Belarus.
Large numbers of Wagner fighters had been additionally absorbed into the Russian army as a part of the settlement to finish the stand-off.
Prigozhin has not been seen since he arrived in Belarus, however has launched a press release on why he started his “march for justice”.
“We started our march because of an injustice,” he mentioned.
Explaining why the advance was deserted, Prigozhin mentioned he didn’t need to shed Russian blood – and insisted that he had no intention of overthrowing the federal government.
He added: “We have shown the level of organisation that an army must meet.”
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Describing the second he determined to order his fighters to halt their advance on Moscow, Prigozhin mentioned: “We felt that the demonstration of what we were going to do was enough.
“And our choice to show again was influenced by two most vital elements.
“The first factor was that we did not want to shed Russian blood,” Prigozhin continued.
“The second factor was that we were going for a demonstration of our protest, not to overthrow the government in the country.”
Meanwhile, an ex-CIA director has mentioned the rebellion created a “once-in-a-generation” alternative for the US to recruit spies in Russia.
William Burns mentioned the aborted mutiny was a problem to the Russian state that confirmed the corrosive impact of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s battle in Ukraine.
Speaking at a lecture to the Ditchley Foundation – a charity centered on British-American relations – Mr Burns mentioned dissatisfaction with the battle was making a uncommon alternative to recruit spies, which the CIA was capitalising on.
Source: information.sky.com”