Criminal case into Prigozhin ongoing despite assurances – Russian media

The head of the Wagner mercenary group is still being investigated by Russian authorities despite the Kremlin promising to drop all charges against him, according to Russia’s three main news agencies and another newspaper.

Russia’s domestic spy agency, the FSB, still has a case open against Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to unnamed sources speaking to the news outlets.

Under a deal mediated by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukahsenko to defuse the crisis late on Saturday, the Kremlin said a criminal case against Prigozhin would be dropped and his fighters would face no legal action.

But the Kommersant website, quoting an unidentified source, said the decision to initiate a criminal case had not yet been cancelled, and the investigation into the rebellion was ongoing. It went on to quote the source saying not enough time had passed to close the case.

To be clear, this information is coming from Russian news outlets, and we haven’t yet been able to independently verify it.

It remains unclear exactly what this means for the deal, and we haven’t heard from Prigozhin or Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin yet.