THE warlord behind the armed coup against Vladimir Putin is staying in a windowless hotel to avoid being assassinated.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, 62, is holed up in the building to escape being pushed to his death like other past enemies of vengeful Putin, a US intelligence expert said.
The Wagner Group chief is in Minsk, capital of Russian puppet state Belarus, where he was allowed to relocate after calling off his army’s march on Moscow.
His fighters, who killed 15 Russian airmen during the aborted coup, were given the choice of following him, enlisting in the regular Russian army or going home.
He has been branded a “traitor” by Putin, a number of whose former enemies have fallen from windows in apparent Kremlin hits dressed up as accidents.
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Asked about Prigozhin’s whereabouts yesterday, Senator Mark Walker, chairman of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, said there were reports he was in a hotel with no windows.
He said: “That would show what his mindset is.”
He went on: “There have been a number of Russian entity individuals who have run afoul of Putin over the last year and a half, who have mysteriously fallen out of fifth, sixth or seventh floor windows.”
Kremlin hawks, meanwhile, criticised Putin after he dropped charges against the coup plotters who fired on Russian aircraft. Igor Girkin, a former FSB intelligence officer who led Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine, branded Putin’s response “pitiful”.
Former military commander Andrey Gurulyov raged: “Who gave the command? Who launched the rocket? Traitors have to be destroyed!”
Igor Girkin, a former FSB intelligence officer who led Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine, branded Putin’s response “pitiful”.
Meanwhile, Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko claimed he brokered the deal that halted the Wagner coup after warning off
Prigozhin by telling him: “You’ll be crushed like a bug.”
He also claimed to have averted a bloodbath by advising Putin against rushing to crush the mutiny.
