If you thought Russia’s mercenary mutiny saga couldn’t get any weirder, it just did. Photos of rebel mastermind Yevgeny Prigozhin donning a series of outrageous disguises have leaked in the Russian media, reportedly having been discovered during a raid on one of his properties.
The images, circulated by Kremlin-connected Telegram channels and reportedly broadcast on at least one state-run TV channel, appear to be part of an effort to reverse months of propaganda lionizing Prigozhin’s Wagner Group as patriotic heroes after the mercenaries killed several Russian service members in an uprising that faced absolutely no resistance.
The photos show the Wagner Group founder trying out various identities with the help of fake beards, wigs, and bogus military uniforms, sparking comparisons to the Sacha Baron Cohen film Borat.
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In one, Prigozhin is said to be posing as a staffer at Sudan’s Defense Ministry, in another—a diplomatic aide from Abu Dhabi. The disguises were reportedly used to provide cover for Wagner’s mercenary work overseas, though it’s not clear if they were ever very effective.
Other images shared from the raid show a massive sledgehammer reserved for “important negotiations” and a photo of decapitated heads, according to local St. Petersburg outlet Fontanka.
While state-controlled media appears to have embarked on a campaign to humiliate the traitorous mercenary boss in the eyes of the Russian people, his supposed banishment to Belarus that the Kremlin touted as a response to the mutiny may have have been just for show.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko told reporters on Thursday that Prigozhin is not, in fact, in Belarus but back home in St. Petersburg.
“Where is he this morning? Maybe he went to Moscow,” Lukashenko said.
“As far as I am aware this morning, the Wagner fighters are located in their own camps. In their permanent camps, where they were located for recovery after their withdrawal from the front,” he said, apparently referring to the group’s camps in Ukraine’s Luhansk region.
He went on to offer assurances that the one-time Vladimir Putin ally would not be assassinated as payback for the uprising.
“He and I talked on the phone yesterday afternoon and we discussed the further actions of Wagner. He told me one thing: ‘We will work for the good of Russia and fulfill our duty to the end.’ What will happen to him next? Well, in life anything can happen. But if you think that Putin is so malicious and vindictive that he’ll be taken out tomorrow… no, that will not happen.”
The Kremlin also claimed Thursday that it has not been paying any attention to Prigozhin’s movements.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the Kremlin had “neither the opportunity nor the desire” to track the Wagner boss’ whereabouts.
