Fighters of the Wagner mercenary group are getting ready to mobilize to take revenge for the alleged assassination of their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, reported the Daily Mail based on the Wagner-linked Russian outlet Readovka, on Thursday, August 24th.
According to the Russian sources, Wagner had a long-established contingency plan prepared for the event of the death of either of its leaders, Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, both of whom were aboard the plane that crashed on Wednesday near Moscow, after it was allegedly shot down by Russian armed forces.
As Readovka’s unnamed source explained to the paper: “In the event of Prigozhin’s death, there is a mechanism for full mobilization—regardless of who was at fault for his death.” However, there is no way to independently confirm the existence of such a plan, nor to know the extent to which the mercenaries will actually react.
Nonetheless, there is immense outrage on social media among Wagner sympathizers, who filled their feeds with vengeful messages following the crash, branding those responsible “traitors” to Russia and calling for another march on Moscow in revenge.
“There is a lot of talk right now about what the Wagner Group will do,” one supposed mercenary said in a video message. He continued:
We can tell you one thing. We are getting started, get ready for us.
At this point, there is no decisive evidence to prove Prigozhin is dead, nor that it was Putin behind the attack. But according to Sir John Sawyers, the former head of MI6 who appeared on BBC Radio 4 following the incident, “All the indications point to the fact that Putin has taken him out.”
The ex-spy thinks Putin’s motivation was to send a powerful message that he’s not tolerating any challenge to his rule, referring to Wagner’s failed coup attempt two months ago. Sawyers also added that it was most probably a bomb aboard the plane that took it down, and not missiles, since security services would have been able to detect those.
Meanwhile, President Putin broke his silence Thursday night, offering his “most sincere condolences” to families of the fallen leaders, calling Prigozhin a “talented businessman … who could, when asked, do his bit for the common cause,” while also describing the mercenary chief as someone burdened by his mistakes:
[Prigozhin] was a man with a difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in life.
So far, none of the bodies of the ten people who were aboard the plane has been identified conclusively. The badly burnt and severed remains were transported to Moscow for blood tests, but the infuriated Wagnerites might not believe the authorities, whatever the results.
“We directly say that we suspect the Kremlin officials led by Putin of an attempt to kill [Prigozhin],” an early address from Wagner’s remaining leadership reads.
If the information about Prigozhin’s death is confirmed, we will organize a second “March of Justice” on Moscow! He’d better be alive, it’s in your own interests…
Another reason to believe that the Kremlin might have been behind the assassination is that just one day prior to the crash, General Sergei Surovikin was fired from being in charge of security over the Russian mainland. “He was seen as one of the generals who was supporting Prigozhin and was an ally of his,” said Christopher Steele, the former head of the MI6’s Russia desk. “For him to have been removed a day before does rather suggest a pattern of state-backed activity here.”
