‘Putin’s Chef’ Yevgeny Prigozhin May Have Been Killed In Moscow Plane Crash
Yevgeny Prigozhin May Have Been Killed In Moscow Plane Crash.
Yevgeny Prigozhin May Have Been Killed In Moscow Plane Crash.
A week after Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin fled to Minsk after leading a short-lived mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin, Poland has begun bolstering its defenses along its border with Belarus where the Polish government will be deploying an additional 500 counterterrorism police. Both Poland and Ukraine have voiced growing concerns over the past week that Wagner might have established bases in Belarus and Kyiv has also announced that it will be strengthening its military positions along its northern border.
Days after Wagner’s short-lived mutiny in southern Russia as the group of mercenaries marched toward Moscow, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Lithuania, “I think what we’re seeing in Russia over the last days demonstrates the fragility of the [Russian] regime, and, of course, it is a demonstration of weakness.”
On Tuesday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed that Wagner head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had arrived in Belarus 3 days after he led an armed rebellion against Russia’s defense ministry.
While the armed rebellion launched by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group, came as a surprise for most of the world over the weekend, U.S. intelligence officials knew of the plot and briefed Congress on the situation days ahead of Saturday’s mutiny after intelligence officials reportedly observed Wagner fighters mustering forces and gathering weapons.
Russia’s Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has given a rare and revealing interview with pro-Moscow blogger Konstantin Dolgov, fresh off the weekend declaration of victory over Bakhmut in Ukraine’s east.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin clarified late Saturday in an audio statement that despite regular Russian forces having “retreated” from parts of Bakhmut’s north (in his words), his own Wagner fighters are still advancing.
Tensions rose this past week between Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner, Russia’s paramilitary group, and Russian officials when the Wagner chief threatened to pull his forces out of Bakhmut if the Russian Defense Ministry didn’t provide the organization with the necessary arms to continue the offensive. Wagner and Russian troops control 90 percent of the destroyed city.
A Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (NH), has joined with 6 other Democrat and Republican senators to introduce legislation titled the Holding Accountable Russian Mercenaries (HARM) Act that would force the State Department to add the Wagner Group to the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.
On Thursday, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen announced that the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group is among numerous Russian entities being sanctioned for their involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine. The most recent round of sanctions from both the Treasury and Department of State target the individuals and organizations supporting the infrastructure of Putin’s war in Ukraine.