Former Russian lawmaker Ilya Ponomarev said that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is still on "good terms" with former Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin despite Prigozhin's failed rebellion against the Kremlin military last month.
Ponomarev, who was forced into exile in 2014 after voting against Russia's illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, spoke with CNN's Erin Burnett Thursday night about his take on Putin and Prigozhin's relationship, which has remained much of a mystery since the aftermath of the Wagner Group's uprising.
Prigozhin previously said that his brief mutiny was a protest of the Russian Ministry of Defense's actions in Ukraine, which at the time was forcing Wagner mercenaries to sign contracts with Moscow's military. Wagner forces had previously fought side by side with Russia in the war in Ukraine, and Prigozhin has historically shared a close relationship to Putin.
According to Ponomarev, that allyship is likely still alive and well, telling Burnett that he thinks Prigozhin "is one of the most trusted men to Putin."
"They have a very long history of relationship," Ponomarev added, pointing to previous accusations that Putin helped run a drug-smuggling and money-laundering ring in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. According to Ponomarev, Prigozhin helped provide an "asylum" for Putin's "gang" at the time.
"So that's one of the most trusted person in any gang, the guy who provides the premises," he added.
It's still unclear what role Prigozhin will now serve to Putin, although the Kremlin leader hosted a meeting with the Wagner chief and several of his commanders in the days following the uprising last month. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the meeting lasted several hours and included Wagner forces pledging their loyalty to "the Motherland."
Wagner troops have since relocated to Belarus as part of the peace deals brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to bring Prigozhin's mutiny to an end. Commanders for the private military company have reportedly been training Belarusian soldiers, and Prigozhin promised in a series of Telegram posts on Wednesday that his troops will make Belarus "the second army in the world."
Ponomarev told Burnett that it worries him to see proof of Prigozhin and Putin still sharing a good relationship, although he does not think it will impact Russia's fight against Ukraine's counteroffensive. Instead, the former Kremlin lawmaker said, he thinks Wagner's presence in Belarus could pose a threat to NATO countries nearby, particularly Lithuania, which borders northwestern Belarus.
"What I [am] afraid is that [Putin] may turn against NATO," Ponomarev said. "There is a railroad that connects mainland Russia with Kaliningrad, and running a provocation there is a natural thing to do because in this case, Prigozhin looks like a non-state actor. ... So Putin will say, 'It's not me.'"
The Russian territory Kaliningrad is between Lithuania and Poland along the Baltic Sea. Russian lawmaker Andrey Kartapolov previously suggested that Putin expelled Wagner troops to Belarus to prepare for an attack against Poland.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry via email Thursday night for comment.
