Shafaq News/ Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin flew to Belarus from Russia on Tuesday after a mutiny that has dealt the biggest blow to President Vladimir Putin's authority since he came to power more than 23 years ago.
Putin initially vowed to crush the mutiny, comparing it to the war-time turmoil that ushered in the revolution of 1917 and then a civil war, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus.
Prigozhin, a 62-year-old former petty thief who rose to become Russia's most powerful mercenary, was last seen in public when he left the southern Russian city of Rostov on Saturday, shaking hands and quipping that he had "cheered up" people.
Flightradar24 showed an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet appeared in Rostov region at 0232 GMT and began a descent at 0420 GMT near Minsk.
The identification codes of the aircraft matched those of a jet linked by the United States to Autolex Transport, which is linked to Prigozhin by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control that enforces sanctions.
"I see Prigozhin is already flying in on this plane," President Alexander Lukashenko was quoted as saying by state news agency BELTA. "Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today."
Under a deal mediated by Lukashenko on Saturday to halt a mutiny by Prigozhin's mercenary fighters, Prigozhin was meant to move to Belarus.
