Investigation into Wagner’s leader for alleged coup attempt in Russia by FSB

Russia’s FSB security agency said it had opened an investigation into statements by Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, which “amounted to the start of an armed civil conflict” in the country, Interfax news agency reported on Friday.

And the news agency reported that the commander of the special army had called for the fight against the military leadership of Moscow on Friday evening.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the case.

In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin is taking the threat, riot police and the National Guard quickly tightened security measures at key facilities in Moscow, including government agencies and transport infrastructure, TASS reported.

The Russian prosecutor general said the criminal investigation was justified and that the charge of armed rebellion carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Ukraine’s military says ‘we are watching’ amid infighting in Russia

The Ukrainian military said it was in the aftermath of infighting in Moscow after the commander of a Wagner mercenary group accused the Russian military of attacking one of the group’s private fighting bases.

“We are watching,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Twitter, while the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kirillo Budanov, said rival Russian factions had begun “gobbling each other up for power and money”.

Earlier, Prigozhin accused Moscow’s military leadership of attacking mercenary units and threatened countermeasures.

Prigozhin said in an audio message circulated by his press service on Telegram on Friday that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had exposed Wagner camps in remote areas to attack with artillery, helicopters and missiles.

He said he had 25,000 men under orders to investigate the cause of such abuse in the country.

Prigozhin threatened, “Anyone who tries to resist us, we will consider him a threat and we will kill them on the spot.” The Russian Defense Ministry denied an attack took place.

On Friday, the deputy commander of the Russian campaign in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, urged the fighters of Wagner’s special militia to drop their opposition to the military leadership and return to their bases.

“I urge you to stop,” he said in a video message posted to Telegram. “The enemy is only waiting for the deterioration of the internal political situation in our country.”

According to Prigozhin, Shoigu specially came to Rostov-on-Don, a city of more than a million people near the Ukrainian border, to lead the operation against Wagner.

“At 9 pm (6 pm GMT) he ran away – cowardly as a woman – for not explaining why he took off helicopters and missile strikes to kill our boys. This monster will be stopped,” Prigozhin said.

He spoke of a “large number” of deaths but did not mention the exact number of mercenaries he claimed were killed in the raid.

The Ministry of Defense immediately denied these allegations. The ministry said in a statement distributed this evening that all allegations are false and a “provocation”.

The National Anti-Terrorism Committee also described the allegations as unfounded.

“The allegations spread in the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin have no basis in fact. That is why the FSB has initiated criminal proceedings on the basis of these statements to call for an armed coup,” the agency’s widely distributed statement read.

In addition to the FSB, all other Russian security agencies belong to the Committee.