Wagner Chief Is Likely Dead After Rebelling Against Putin: Former US General

A senior US military leader has claimed that Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is either dead or jailed after leading a rebellion against Russia's military leadership, last month.

Retired General Robert Abrams expressed his views on Prigozhin's uncertain fate following his short-lived armed insurrection last month, the New York Post reports.

"My personal assessment is that I doubt we'll see Prigozhin ever again publicly," Gen Abrams told ABC News. "I think he'll either be put in hiding, or sent to prison, or dealt with some other way, but I doubt we'll ever see him again."

Robert Abrams is an ABC News contributor in the US who previously served as the commander of US Forces Korea.

On asking whether the Prigozhin could be alive after posing the biggest-ever challenge to Putin's regime in two decades, he said, "I personally don't think he is, and if he is, he's in a prison somewhere."

Casting doubt on the credibility of the claimed encounter, the retired four-star general expressed scepticism regarding a meeting that, as per Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, allegedly took place on June 29 between Putin, Prigozhin, and all the high-ranking commanders of Wagner, just five days after the failed mutiny.

"I'd be surprised if we actually see proof of life that Putin met with Prigozhin, and I think it's highly staged," Abrams said.

Peskov had claimed that the Russian President had invited 35 for the meeting which lasted three hours. Going by the French newspaper Liberation, the head of the national guard, Viktor Zolotov, and SVR Foreign Intelligence boss Sergei Naryshkin had also attended the meeting.

The brief mutiny led by Prigozhin, in which Wagner fighters took control of the southern city of Rostov, was defused in a deal brokered by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

Under the agreed-upon terms, Prigozhin was supposed to depart for Belarus. However, Lukashenko revealed last week that Prigozhin had returned to Russia, and the Wagner fighters had not yet accepted the opportunity to relocate to Belarus. This situation has raised doubts regarding the execution of the agreement.