MOSCOW: The chief of the rebel Wagner mercenary force will leave Russia and won’t face charges after calling off his troops’ advance on Saturday, Moscow said, easing Russia’s most serious security crisis in decades. The feud between Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russia’s military brass came to a violent head in the past day, with his forces capturing a key army headquarters in southern Russia and then heading north to threaten the capital. Within hours of Prigozhin’s about-face, the Kremlin announced he would leave for Belarus and Russia would not prosecute either him or the group’s members. Wagner troops cheeredBy early Sunday Wagner had pulled fighters and equipment from Rostov-on-Don, where they had seized the military headquarters, said the regional governor. Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said he had negotiated a truce with Prigozhin, drawing thanks from Moscow.

Source: Libya Today June 25, 2023 12:37 UTC