Masked men claiming to be part of the Wagner Group have released a chilling video promising revenge after the apparent death of warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The mercenary leader, who led a brief armed rebellion against the Russian military earlier this year, is presumed dead after a plane crash north of Moscow that killed all 10 people on board.
Prigozhin was on the plane, according to Russia's civil aviation agency, which cited the airline. The crash immediately raised suspicions since the fate of the founder of the Wagner private military company has been the subject of intense speculation ever since he mounted the mutiny.
Yevgeny Prigozhin is believed to have been killed (AP)At the time, President Vladimir Putin denounced the rebellion as "treason" and a "stab in the back" and vowed to avenge it. But the charges against Prigozhin were soon dropped.
The Wagner chief, whose troops were some of the best fighting forces for Russia in Ukraine, was allowed to retreat to Belarus, while reportedly popping up in Russia from time to time.
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In a video released after the crash, masked men appear to promise revenge on Moscow. In the footage one man says: "There's a lot of talk right now about what the Wagner Group will do. We can tell you one thing, we are getting started, get ready for us." The video released online is yet to be confirmed as officially on behalf of the group.
The site of the plane crash north of Moscow (Social media/e2w)
A piece of debris from the crash (112/e2w)The crash comes after Russian media reported that a top general linked to Prigozhin was dismissed from his position as commander of the air force. A plane carrying three crew members and seven passengers that was en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg went down almost 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the capital, according to officials cited by Russia's state news agency Tass.
Russia's civilian aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, quickly reported that Prigozhin was on the manifest and later said that, according to the airline, he was indeed on board.
Earlier, Vladimir Rogov, a Russia-appointed official in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region in Ukraine, said he talked to Wagner commanders who also confirmed that Prigozhin was aboard, as was Dmitry Utkin, whose call sign Wagner became the company's name.
The crash killed all 10 people on board (Social media/e2w)"I don't know for a fact what happened but I'm not surprised," U.S. President Joe Biden said. Keir Giles, a Russia expert with the international affairs think tank Chatham House, had urged caution about reports of Prigozhin's death. He said "multiple individuals have changed their name to Yevgeniy Prigozhin, as part of his efforts to obfuscate his travels."
Russia's Investigative Committee opened an investigation into the crash on charges of violating air safety rules, as is typical when they open such probes. Interfax, citing emergency officials, reported early Thursday that all 10 bodies had been recovered at the site of the crash and the search operation had ended.
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