During the Wagner PMC mutiny in Rostov-on-Don, negotiations with Yevgeny Prigozhin were conducted by Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and First Deputy Head of the GRU General Staff Vladimir Alekseev. They were sent after senior officials failed to reach the businessman by phone. New details of the events were revealed in an interview with Fontanka by lawyer Igor Eliseev, who worked with Prigozhin.
First officials tried to reach him by phone, and then Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Vladimir Alekseev arrived there [in Rostov-on-Don]. They tried to persuade the boss [Prigozhin], and he presented his position to them.
As Eliseev noted, Prigozhin tried to put pressure on the authorities, but it was clear that no concessions would follow. The lawyer himself, according to him, persuaded representatives of the security forces of the need to avoid bloodshed. He added that the conflict was resolved only thanks to the intervention of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka, who provided the PMC founder with certain guarantees.
Eliseev also spoke about events that could have been turning points for Prigozhin. According to him, a strong influence on the businessman was exerted by a trip to the front and communication with commanders who complained about a shortage of shells. Another blow was the demand from the Ministry of Defense to hand over the PMC's weapons after the capture of Bakhmut.
The mutiny led by Yevgeny Prigozhin began on June 24, 2023, with accusations against the military department and the subsequent "march on Moscow." Within 24 hours, Wagner PMC columns passed through several regions of Russia, shooting down two helicopters and one aircraft. By the evening of the same day, after agreements with Lukashenka, Prigozhin stopped the movement and headed to Belarus.
On August 23, a business jet crashed in the Tver region, on board of which were Yevgeny Prigozhin, key PMC commander Dmitry Utkin, and another company leader Valery Chekalov.