Russian State Duma to Regulate Activities of Wagner Group by Law

Russian State Duma works on a law to regulate the activities of the Wagner paramilitary Group, which at the initiative of its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, launched a march on Moscow on Friday night to topple Russia’s military command. The uprising was over after an agreement suggested by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the head of the Duma Defense Committee, Andrey Kartapolov, said on Sunday. Under the terms of the agreement, details of which have been published, Prigozhin will be exempt from criminal responsibility but will go to Belarus. Wagner troops who took part in the mutiny will get amnesty, and some will be able to sign contracts with the Russian army. However, it is still unclear what will happen to the group, which was also prominent in Syria and African countries before the war in Ukraine. “The fate of Wagner is not certain, but it should not be banned either, as it is a combat-ready unit, there are questions only to its leadership, not to the soldiers,” Andrey Kartapolov explained for the Vedomosti newspaper. Prigozhin accused the Russian military leadership for incompetence, which has led to failures at the front and the deaths of large numbers of Russian soldiers in Ukraine, and launched a “march of justice” towards Moscow on Friday night. After occupying the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don, which is the focal point of Russian military operations in Ukraine, Prigozhin and his soldiers advanced towards Moscow, passed the Voronezh district and entered Lipetsk, roughly 400 km from Moscow. Finally, through the mediation of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin ordered the Wagner troops to return to their temporary positions in Ukraine, arguing that he did not want bloodshed in Russia.