Russia says Wagner Group’s leader will move to Belarus

The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, has called on people to refrain as far as possible from trips around the city, given a counter-terrorism operation had been declared.

A man prepares to take down a poster reading ‘Join us at Wagner’ on the outskirts of St Petersburg (AP)

The head of the private Russian military company Wagner will move to neighboring Belarus as part of deal to defuse rebellion tensions and the criminal case against him will be closed, the Kremlin said Saturday.

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s troops who joined him in the uprising will not face prosecution and those who did not will be offered contracts by the Defense Ministry, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.