Two planes linked to Russian Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s business jet arrived in Belarus early today, prompting exile rumours.
There was no immediate confirmation that the warlord who plotted an armed uprising on Saturday was on board either aircraft.
But he had been expected to arrive into exile in authoritarian Belarus after turning his troops around under a pact with Vladimir Putin late on Saturday.
Flight tracking information shows an Embraer Legacy 600 plane arrived from the Rostov-on-Don region in southern Russia at 7:40am local time.
Another jet flew in from St Petersburg, Prigozhin’s home city at 7:58am.
Both landed at the Machulishchi air base near Belarus' capital Minsk.
At around 5pm BST, it was confirmed that 62-year-old thug Prigozhin had landed in Minsk, where he was joined by some of his Wagner guns-for-hire, following a bust-up with Putin's commanders.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed Prigozhin is in Minsk and can stay “for some time” at his own expense with his mercenaries.
Russian authorities have closed a criminal investigation into his aborted armed rebellion and are pressing no charges against him or his troops.
The Federal Security Service said mutineers “ceased activities” amid civil war fears so the case would not be pursued.
On Saturday the mercenary warlord turned on his former ally Putin and marched on Russia's capital Moscow in what experts say was an attempted coup.
A series of dramatic hours followed but after less than 24 hours, they turned around.
The Kremlin said it had made a deal for Prigozhin to move to Belarus and receive amnesty, along with his soldiers.
Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin did an angry five-minute speech on Monday saying that the mutiny's organisers had "betrayed the country and those who were with them."
The planes landed as a claim emerged that Prigozhin had tricked top Wagner commanders into believing that Putin had personally approved his march to Moscow on Saturday.
“Prigozhin told personnel, first of all, commanders and deputy commanders that - allegedly - this whole story was approved by Putin personally,” said Vladimir Osechkin, an exiled human rights activist with sources in Russian law enforcement.
They were told that Putin “was weak and needed help to replace the leadership of the FSB and the defence ministry whom he fears.”
He would use the march on Moscow to replace his failed security and defence chiefs, they were informed.
In his video, Putin also talked about WW1 and about 1917 because he was convinced that he was "on the brink of revolution, rebellion or coup”, said Osechkin.
Putin “truly believed and feared that that scenario would come to life”
Members of the armed revolt had phoned Osechkin’s hotline and said they were marching under duress fearing that would be “annulled, executed” if they disobeyed what they thought had been an order by Putin to help him fire the defence minister Sergei Shoigu and FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov.
Prigozhin has been warned that his life may not be safe in Belarus, controlled by Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko.
