GOLD bars, weapons, passports, a sledgehammer, and collections of wigs stored on a shelf, were among the items found by Russian authorities after raiding the lavish mansion of the billionaire founder of the private military group Wagner, or Wagner PMC.
Izvestia, a Russian news outlet reported that it had received footage from the raid of the Wagner boss’s mansion in St. Petersburg on June 24th, which was carried out by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) at a time when the Wagner boss and his men were staging the mutiny on Rostov-On-Don.
Images also showed a collection of wigs, passports, money in various currencies, gold bars, and weapons.
There was also what appears to be a medical examination room in the mansion.
And a framed photograph depicting severed human heads.
Authorities also found a sledgehammer with the inscription “in case of important negotiations” written in Russian.
Reports also say that the 62-year-old Wagner chief was invited back into Russia to collect his weapons, just a day after reclaiming the $150 million seized in June.
A Russian news outlet reported that Prigozhin was seen on Tuesday evening arriving in a BMW 7 series at the Office of the Federal Bureau Service in St. Petersburg, Russia and that all of the said assets- including cash and gold bars, were returned to Prigozhin.
Prigozhin has yet to make a public appearance since the end of the Wagner mutiny, but earlier this week, the Wagner boss released an audio message thanking the supporters of the Wagner Group and promising to give new victories on the frontlines.
A telegram channel used by Wagner for recruitment purposes announced that it was temporarily pausing all hiring while its troops relocate to Belarus.
The Wagner PMC is known as a battle-hardened notorious group that had earlier been involved in combat in Africa and the Middle East.
It was later hired to help capture the Ukrainian City of Bakhmut, which is currently now under Russian control.
To recall, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who brokered the truce between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prigozhin to end the mutiny, said Wagner PMC could come and pass their combat experience to the Belarusian army.
And on Thursday, Lukashenko said that Prigozhin is in St. Petersburg, though his exact location remains unknown.
“As far as Prigozhin is concerned, he is in Saint Petersburg. He is not in Belarus,” Pres. Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus said.
All of this is happening as thousands of Wagner fighters are currently on Belarusian Soil.
Reports of images provided by planet labs PLC show what looks like a newly built military-style camp in Belarus, with dozens of tents erected within the past two weeks at an ex-military base outside Osipovichi, a Belarusian town located 230 kilometers north of the Ukrainian border.
Meanwhile, Putin in late June revealed that the Wagner group was fully dependent on state support and that Russian authorities allocated 86.26 billion rubles, or 1.04 billion U.S. dollars for wages and incentive payments for Wagner fighters.
