Wagner chief holed up in windowless hotel to avoid being assassinated by Putin
The leader of Wagner's botched coup against Vladimir Putin has set up in a hotel devoid of windows to avoid any suspicious accidents.
Mercenary warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, 62, who was a convict and hot dog seller in a previous life, is staying in a hotel in the capital of Belarus, Minsk, where he has been exiled after calling off his brief uprising.
In exchange for his co-operation, the Kremlin has decided it will not press charges against him or his rag tag bunch of hardened guns-for-hire - an unimaginable agreement considering members of the public can be jailed for publicly criticising the Russian leadership.
His mercenaries were given the choice of following their leader, enlisting in the Russian Armed Forces, or returning home - despite having been responsible for slaughtering 15 Russian airmen during the insurrection.
Prigozhin reacts to the hero's welcome he received in Rostov (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Putin branded him a "traitor" during his address to the country over the weekend.
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Many other *individuals" considered treacherous by the Kremlin have met gruesome fates, including being thrown from windows and their deaths being branded misadventure.
News of Prigozhin's current hideout was revealed by Senator Mark Walker, the chairman of the US Senate Intelligence Committee.
Putin during a speech yesterday as he acknowledged the "extreme danger" of the weekend's events (Getty Images)He said that intelligence showed he was staying in a hotel without windows, which is a clear indication of his current "mindset".
He continued: “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.”
The decision to give Prigozhin a pass has not gone down well in the Kremlin, with hawks critcising him for dropping the charges.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky poses with a serviceman during a visit to Donetsk (UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SER)Former FSB officer Igor Girkin - who led Russian-aligned forces during the Ukraine crisis - branded the decision "pitiful".
Andrey Gurulyov - another former military commander - added: “Who gave the command? Who launched the rocket? Traitors have to be destroyed!”
Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, who has offered Prigozhin sanctuary in his country, claims to have been key in brokering the deal that allowed the warlord to get off scott free.
Wagner soldiers in Rostov (AFP via Getty Images)He is said to have told him he should back down or risk being "crushed like a bug".
Lukashenko, a notoriously brutal dictator, claims that he avoided a bloodbath by persuading Putin not to crush the mutiny.
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