Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is still in Russia, Belarus's president has said, raising questions about the deal to end the mercenary leader's mutiny last month.
President Alexander Lukashenko mediated a deal to end Prigozhin's revolt that was to see the mercenary head into Belarusian exile.
"As far as Prigozhin is concerned, he is in Saint Petersburg. He is not in Belarus," Lukashenko told reporters on Thursday in the capital Minsk.
Speaking in the presidential palace, Lukashenko said he knew "for sure" that Prigozhin was a free man, adding: "I spoke to him on the phone yesterday".
Prigozhin's mutiny
The Kremlin replied by saying it was "not following" Prigozhin's movements, nearly two weeks after the June 23 mutiny that saw armed fighters on the march toward Moscow.
Lukashenko said that members of Prigozhin's Wagner mercenary group have not established a base in Belarus yet, despite an offer from the Kremlin for those who took part in the failed mutiny to do so.
"At the moment the question of their transfer and set-up has not been decided," Lukashenko said.
Images broadcast by Russian media on Wednesday showed police entering Prigozhin's residence, a vast and luxurious mansion with a helicopter parked in the grounds, reportedly on June 25.
