Putin orders oath of allegiance from Wagner mercenaries after killing Prigozhin
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President Vladimir Putin orders Wagner mercenaries to swear an oath of allegiance to him two days after their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was likely killed in a plane crash
President Vladimir Putin orders Wagner mercenaries to swear an oath of allegiance to him two days after their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was likely killed in a plane crash.
The decree by Putin came as Russians fighting for Ukraine urged grieving Wagner fighters to join their ranks, although the mood of the pro-Kremlin mercenaries appeared somber rather than rebellious.
The new oath aims to build “the spiritual and moral foundations for the defence of the Russian Federation” and ensure that all Russian soldiers and mercenaries “strictly follow the orders of commanders and superiors”.
Prigozhin and nine other people, mainly top Wagner commanders, were killed when his private jet crashed on Wednesday, two months after he launched a failed coup in Moscow.
Western intelligence agencies have accused Putin of involvement, likely by ordering the planting of a bomb on the plane.
The Kremlin dismissed accusations it ordered Prigozhin’s assassination as an “absolute lie” in the first direct denial on Saturday.
Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator and close ally of Putin who mediated the deal that ended the mutiny said he “can’t imagine” the Russian president ordering the assassination.
On Friday, the Russian Volunteer Corps, a group of Russians fighting for Ukraine, said Wagner mercenaries should join their ranks and avenge Prigozhin’s death.
“Together we’ll march on Moscow and this time we will not stop 200 kilometres from the Moscow Ring Road, but we will reach the end,” Denis Nikitin, its leader, said referring to the Wagner rebellion in June that Prigozhin called off 190 kilometres from the Russian capital.
But despite the offer to exact revenge on the Kremlin, there is no evidence that Wagner mercenaries have started to join the pro-Ukraine corps.
One unnamed Wagner mercenary told the Meduza.io website that if Prigozhin had been killed after his June mutiny, his fighters would have resumed their march on Moscow, but now the fight has gone out of them.
“It’s timing, you know?” he said. “Immediately after our march there would have been a reaction, but now some are on holiday, some are rebuilding their lives and some have already gone to work at the Ministry of Defence.”
Telegram channels linked to Wagner were full of tributes to their murdered leaders, rather than calls to rise up against the Kremlin.
They published photos of makeshift shrines in Moscow, St Petersburg, and provincial cities covered in flowers and candles as well as photos of Prigozhin and the other dead Wagner leaders.
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At one memorial, a mourner had left a sledgehammer, Wagner’s informal insignia which its fighters use to kill and torture prisoners.
Many of Wagner’s mercenaries were recruited directly from prison. In return for fighting for six months on the front line, they were promised a pardon and many were quoted as saying that they owe their second chance in life to Prigozhin.
“I was ready to do whatever he asked. This man helped me get out of prison earlier and atone for my guilt with blood,” a Wagner mercenary called Astafyev told the Verstka opposition news website.
Prigozhin was renowned for caring about his fighters and spending time with them on the front line, boosting morale, whereas regular Russian army generals are despised for cynically sending them on death missions.
Meanwhile, it emerged on Friday that Prigozhin was given gold bars from a Wagner-controlled mine in Africa on what turned out to be his last visit to the continent.
The loot was delivered by five commanders from Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group reliant on the mercenary chief’s services in their war against their country’s government.
Prigozhin had been holding talks in the riverside presidential palace in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic.
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