President Vladimir Putin has launched his first major strike against mutiny leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, announcing the Wagner chief’s business finances would be investigated.

In a revenge move, Mr Putin said the Wagner founder’s catering business had been propped up by the state to the tune of almost $US2 billion ($2.99 billion) in the past year.

The Russian president was speaking to the country’s soldiers during a meeting at the Kremlin.

Reuters reports Mr Putin said he had always respected Wagner’s fighters, but the group had been “fully financed” from the state budget.

The company received 86 billion roubles ($1.5 billion) from the defence ministry between May 2022 and May 2023.

Mr Prigozhin’s Concord catering company made 80 billion roubles ($1.4 billion) from state contracts to supply food to the Russian army, Mr Putin said.

“I do hope that, as part of this work, no one stole anything, or, let’s say, stole less, but we will, of course, investigate all of this.”

Meanwhile Mr Prigozhin, who was once so close to the Russian president he was dubbed ‘Putin’s chef’, has begun his exile in Belarus.

The Wagner chief landed from the southern Russian city of Rostov on Wednesday (AEST), under a deal that ended his brief mutiny against the Russian military at the weekend.

“I see Prigozhin is already flying in on this plane,” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reportedly said.

“Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today.”

‘Crushed like a bug’

Mr Lukashenko said he had convinced Mr Prigozhin in an emotional, expletive-laden phone call to scrap his private army’s armed advance on Moscow.

He said he warned Mr Prigozhin halfway on the march to Moscow that “you’ll just be crushed like a bug”.

The Belarusian president, an acquaintance of Mr Prigozhin and close ally of Mr Putin, said that Mr Putin had sought his help and that he had advised the Russian president against “rushing” to suppress the Wagner mutineers.

In Moscow, Mr Putin praised Russia’s armed forces for preventing a civil war as he sought to reassert his authority after the mutiny.

Russian authorities also dropped a criminal case against the Wagner Group mercenary force, state news agency RIA reported, apparently fulfilling another condition of the deal.

Mr Prigozhin, an ex-convict whose mercenaries have fought the bloodiest battles of the Ukraine war and taken heavy casualties, had earlier said he would go to neighbouring Belarus at the invitation of Mr Lukashenko.

Flight tracking service Flightradar24’s website showed an Embraer Legacy 600 jet, bearing identification codes that match a plane linked to Mr 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 Mr Prigozhin’s fighters had captured during the mutiny.

Mr Prigozhin was seen 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.

He has not yet been seen in public in Belarus.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has landed in Belarus after being sent into exile. Photo: AAP

Mr Putin meanwhile told about 2500 security personnel mustered for a ceremony on a square in the Kremlin complex that the people and the armed forces had stood together in opposition to the rebel mercenaries.

“You have defended the constitutional order, the lives, security and freedom of our citizens. You have saved our motherland from upheaval.

“In fact, you have stopped a civil war,” he said.

Mr Putin was joined by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, whose dismissal had been one of the mutineers’ main demands.

Mr Putin also requested a minute of silence to honour Russian military pilots killed in the revolt.

The fighters had shot down several aircraft during their run towards Moscow, although they faced no resistance on the ground.

On Tuesday (AEST), Mr Putin said in a televised address that the mutiny leaders had betrayed their motherland although he did not mention Mr 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 said on Tuesday the deal ending the mutiny was being implemented. He also said he did not know how many Wagner fighters would sign contracts with the Defence Ministry.

He dismissed the idea that Mr Putin’s grip on power had been shaken by the mutiny, calling such thoughts “hysteria”.

Mr Prigozhin, 62, said he launched the mutiny to save his group after being ordered to place it under command of the defence ministry.

His fighters had halted their campaign on Saturday to avert bloodshed after nearly reaching Moscow, and regretted being forced to shoot down aircraft on the way, he said.

“We went as a demonstration of protest, not to overthrow the government of the country,” Mr Prigozhin said in an audio message on Monday.