A jet linked to Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin arrived in Belarus from Russia on Tuesday, believed to be carrying him to exile three days after he led an aborted mutiny against the Russian military.
Russia's RIA state news agency reported the authorities had dropped a criminal case against Prigozhin's Wagner group following the aborted mutiny over the weekend, which challenged the military's handling of the war in Ukraine.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin attempting to reassert his authority in the aftermath of the mutiny, the Kremlin said Putin would later on Tuesday address members of Russian military units, the National Guard, security forces and others who had helped to uphold order during the revolt.
Under a deal agreed late on Saturday that defused the crisis, the Kremlin said fighters who took part in the mutiny would not be prosecuted.
Prigozhin had said he would go to neighbouring Belarus at the invitation of its president, Alexander Lukashenko. But details of his proposed journey into exile were not made public.
Flight tracking service Flightradar24's website showed an Embraer Legacy 600 jet, bearing identification codes that match a plane linked to Prigozhin in US sanctions documents, descending to landing altitude near the Belarus capital Minsk.
It first appeared on the tracking site above Rostov, the southern Russian city Prigozhin's fighters captured on Saturday. There was no immediate confirmation whether Prigozhin was on board.
He was last seen in public on Saturday night, smiling and high-fiving bystanders as he rode out of Rostov in the back of an SUV after ordering his men to stand down.
Putin said in an address on Monday night that the mutiny leaders had betrayed their motherland, although he did not mention Prigozhin by name. Wagner fighters would be permitted to establish themselves in Belarus, join the Russian military or go home, he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular news briefing on Tuesday the deal ending the mutiny was being implemented, but said he had no information on where Prigozhin was. He also said he did not know how many Wagner fighters would sign contracts with the Defence Ministry.
He dismissed the idea that Putin's grip on power had been shaken by the mutiny, calling such thoughts "hysteria".
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