 And also outside Africa, President Vladimir Putin has praised members of Russia's military and security forces in a ceremony that he set to reassert his authority, throwing an aborted miterney by mercenaries led by the Wagner group Chief Prigazin. A jet linked to a prigazin arrived in Belarus from Russia, believed to be carrying the mercenary boss into exile three days after he abruptly called off his miterney with his fighters bearing down on the Capitol. Authorities dropped a criminal case against Wagner, the state's agency reported, apparently fulfilling one condition of a deal agreed late on Saturday that defused the crisis. Putin told some 2,500 security personnel mustered on a square in the Kremlin complex that the people and the armed forces had stood together in opposition to the rebel mercenaries.