The chief of Britain’s intelligence agency, MI6, said on Wednesday that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had “cut a deal” with Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, during Prigozhin’s failed rebellion last month.
The comments from Richard Moore, the head of MI6, in a rare speech in Prague at an event hosted by Politico, offer insights from a western intelligence official into the stunning but short-lived revolt by Prigozhin last month.
The Wagner leader staged a mutiny against Russia’s military last month, which saw his mercenary forces marching toward the capital before abruptly halting. More than two weeks later, the Kremlin disclosed that Prigozhin and other Wagner leaders had met with Putin for three hours in the days after the rebellion ended.
“I think he probably feels under some pressure,” Moore said of Putin, speaking at the British ambassador’s residence in the Czech capital. “Prigozhin was his creature, utterly created by Putin, and yet he turned on him. He really didn’t fight back against Prigozhin; he cut a deal to save his skin using the good offices of the leader of Belarus.”
Moore also reflected on the head-spinning nature of the Wagner forces’ sudden march toward Moscow, the swiftness with which they stopped, and Prigozhin’s seeming escape — so far — from the grim fate of many Kremlin critics.
His location has been largely uncertain since the revolt. Prigozhin is known to have spent several days in Russia afterwards, and a video posted on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday appears to show him in Belarus. The New York Times verified that the video was taken on Tuesday night at a makeshift Wagner camp about 50 miles southeast of Minsk.
“Prigozhin started off that day as a traitor at breakfast, he had been pardoned by supper, and then a few days later, he was invited for tea,” Moore told the audience. “So, there are some things that even the chief of MI6 finds a little bit difficult to try and interpret, in terms of who’s in and who’s out.” Last week, Putin said that Wagner troops could continue fighting alongside the Russian Army in Ukraine but without their leader.
