This morning on the program The Breakfast Show, Yuri Fedorov, the well known Russian military expert based in Prague, brought up a paragraph from Libération. which seems to have created quite a confusion in Russia. He himself was at odds how to interpret it. Here is the paragraph, the crucial sentences in blue.
Où est passé Evgueni Prigojine ? Depuis son coup de force et la marche de ses hommes vers Moscou le 24 juin, le patron de Wagner est invisible. On a cru le voir à Minsk ou à Saint-Pétersbourg, mais il serait bien dans la capitale russe, selon des sources au sein des renseignements occidentaux. Depuis au moins le vendredi 1er juillet, le mutin serait retenu au Kremlin où il a été convoqué avec ses principaux commandants. Il aurait rencontré Vladimir Poutine, et également été entendu par le général Viktor Zolotov, commandant de la garde nationale Rosgvardia et très fidèle du président, et par Sergueï Narychkine, le patron des renseignements extérieurs russes.
Where did Yevgeny Prigozhin go? Since his show of strength and the march of his men to Moscow on June 24, Wagner's boss has been invisible. He might have been seen in Minsk or Saint Petersburg, but he is most probably in the Russian capital, according to sources in Western intelligence. Since at least Friday, July 1st, the mutineer seems to be held at the Kremlin, where he has been summoned together with his main commanders. He is said to have met Putin, and would have been interrogated by general Viktor Zolotov, commander of the Rosgvardia national guard and very loyal to the president, and by Sergey Narychkin, head of Russian foreign intelligence.
Sergey Naryshkin is the director of foreign intelligence whom Putin humiliated in front of the whole world on February 22, 2022, just two days before the invasion of Ukraine. Today, the 502nd day of the war, what is transpiring within the Kremlin remains unclear.
Update, July 10, 4:20 p.m. IST:
The info in Libération was apparently true since Putin’s spokesman Peskov just confirmed it today: Putin held post-mutiny talks with Wagner leader Prigozhin and his fighters - Kremlin
“The meeting was first reported by French newspaper Liberation, which said Prigozhin had met Putin and the head of the National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, and SVR Foreign Intelligence boss Sergei Naryshkin.”