Wigs, gold bars and pictures of severed heads: Inside Wagner boss’s lavish mansion | CPT PPP Coverage

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A raid by Russian security services has revealed the colourful inside of mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s lavish mansion in St Petersburg.

A wardrobe full of wigs, gold bars and a stuffed alligator were among the many bizarre finds in photos and footage published by pro-Kremlin media outlet Izvestia.

Officials are also said to have found assault weapons, ammunition and even a photograph allegedly showing the severed heads of the Wagner leader’s enemies.

A lengthy indoor swimming pool complete with a bathing area, slides and even a jacuzzi can also be seen in the photographs, with the rooms lit up with what appear to be glass chandeliers.

Elsewhere, the contents of a wardrobe show an array of wigs with colours ranging from grey to a mousy brown, with photos purportedly showing the Wagner chief wearing them as a disguise leaked to state-backed Russian Telegram channels, MailOnline reports.

In a programme called 60 Minutes, broadcast on Wednesday evening on state Rossiya-1 TV channel, journalist Eduard Petrov claimed that cash worth 600 million roubles (£5m) had been found in the Wagner chief’s properties.

Prigozhin has previously said that Wagner only dealt in cash, with Russian president Vladimir Putin adding that the group was financed by the state.

The programme also showed multiple passports which Prigozhin had used under different names.

“A normal person can’t have so many passports,” Petrov said. “Why did this person have such strange powers like the serious leader of some kind of criminal group.”

On Thursday, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko said that Prigozhin was no longer in Belarus, having brokered a deal last month to end an armed mutiny in Russia. His Wagner troops have remained at the camps they stayed in before an attempted mutiny against Moscow.

“As for Prigozhin, he’s in St Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus”, Lukashenko told reporters, having said last week that Prigozhin was still in Belarus.

Prigozhin took control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on 24 June, seized the command centre there where Russia coordinates its war in Ukraine, and sent a column of fighters towards Moscow before standing down after striking a deal with the Kremlin.

The agreement was meant to see Prigozhin relocate to Belarus and in exchange, criminal charges against him dropped.

However, Mr Petrov stated during Wednesday evening’s broadcast that “Nobody planned to close this case. The investigation is ongoing.”