Putin raids Prigozhin’s mansion, humiliates exiled warlord after failed Wagner uprising

Vladimir Putin has humiliated Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin after his failed uprising in Russia by sending security services to raid his St Petersburg palace.

Dailymail reports that Pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia yesterday published photos and video of armed officers searching Prigozhin’s mansion while he was exiled in Belarus on June 24.

The investigators discovered huge caches of assault weapons and ammunition, stashes of gold bars, a stuffed alligator and a framed photo which is purported to be of the severed heads of the exiled private military leader’s enemies.

Images of the raid also include a large closet containing many different wigs of varying styles and colours, from grey to mousy brown.

A slew of photos purporting to show Prigozhin wearing the wigs as part of various disguises were leaked to state-backed Russian Telegram channels.

The quality of some disguises is laughable, sparking speculation they may have been doctored in an attempt to further discredit the Wagner chief.

But Prigozhin’s supporters declared the leaking of the images may flout Russia’s strict national security laws, suggesting the oligarch was acting as a state agent, given Wagner’s ties to Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU.

It comes after the warlord launched what appeared to be an armed insurrection against Putin less than two weeks ago – which was soon halted after Minsk helped broker a deal to end the conflict.