TSEL - With Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko acting as mediator, the Kremlin struck a deal with Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin to end the mutiny and see him move to neighbouring Belarus along with some of his men.
But on Thursday, Lukashenko cast that deal into doubt when he revealed that neither Prigozhin nor his mercenaries were in the country.
"If you're looking for them, you won't find them here," said Leonid Kasinsky, an aide to the Belarusian defence ministry.
Kasinsky was showing the campsite in central Belarus to a group of foreign journalists, who received a rare invitation to the tightly controlled country for a roundtable interview with Lukashenko.
Around him, the 300 tents that could welcome around 5,000 people were empty -- apart from one, where some guards could be seen resting.
Kasinsky said the tents were set up in preparation for planned exercises in the autumn.
Speculation that the camp could be used for Wagner fighters surged after satellite images circulating in media reports showed construction work there around the time of the mutiny.
Lukashenko denied Belarus was building a new facility but said he had offered former military sites -- including the one in Tsel -- to Wagner.
"Given that the base is ready... (Wagner) may be offered it," Kasinsky said.
The potential arrival of thousands of Russian mercenary fighters divided locals in the town of Asipovichy, near Tsel.
Men from the Wagner private mercenary army have been accused of abuses in many countries, including Ukraine, the Central African Republic and Syria.