Mutinous Wagner mercenary group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is likely either dead or jailed, and his much-publicized meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after his botched rebellion was probably faked, according to a former senior US military leader.
Retired Gen. Robert Abrams, an ABC News contributor who previously served as the commander of US Forces Korea, shared his thoughts on Prigozhinâs uncertain fate in the aftermath of the Wagner Groupâs short-lived armed insurrection last month.
âMy personal assessment is that I doubt weâll see Prigozhin ever again publicly,â Abramstold ABC News. âI think heâll either be put in hiding, or sent to prison, or dealt with some other way, but I doubt weâll ever see him again.â
Asked if he thought the billionaire businessman was alive after posing the most significant challenge to Putinâs regime since he came to power in 1999, Abrams said: âI personally donât think he is, and if he is, heâs in a prison somewhere.â
The retired four-star general also raised doubts about a meeting that, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin held with Prigozhin and all his senior Wagner commanders on June 29, five days after the aborted mutiny.