The business jet of the company that served Yevgeny Prigozhin crashed on August 23. Together with him, there were six people on board, including the right hand of the creator of the PMC, commander Dmitry Vagner Utkin, as well as three crew members. President Vladimir Putin confirmed the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin and called him „a man of difficult fate.“

What kind of reaction should we expect from convicts who had previously joined the ranks of Wagner, and those who have already returned from the SVO? Should we expect any reaction from those serving sentences? Will there be rampant crime? Our colleague from MSK1.RU asked the lawyer and ex-prosecutor Alexei Fedyarov, who helps convicts and their families; human rights activist and journalist Eva Merkacheva, who studies the fate of Russian prisoners; and a criminologist.

It is not worth expecting that the death of Prigozhin will cause unrest in criminal circles, Alexei Fedyarov believes.

“The prisoners will accept this without any worries, for them the head of the Wagner PMC is an outsider,” the expert explained. – I have no idea how this will be perceived by the fighters inside the Wagner PMC structure.

The human rights activist noted that many prisoners were not ready to take risks and sign a contract with Wagner. For a significant part of those serving sentences, Yevgeny Prigozhin was not an authority, and his death will definitely not lead to an increase in activity in criminal circles.

There will be no reaction from the prisoners. No one made any bets on it. Everyone lived as they lived, someone had the opportunity to take risks. Someone risked, someone did not, – Fedyarov notes.

“There was no such thing that someone considered Yevgeny Prigozhin their leader. Everyone will perceive it quite calmly, gossip and forget”

Alexey Fedyarov

Journalist and human rights activist Eva Merkacheva agrees and believes that the reaction will be restrained.

– It seems to me that what happened to Yevgeny Prigogine may stop people. Make them think more about the consequences,” she explains. “Perhaps someone thought Wagner would protect them.

There may be changes in the approach of Wagner commanders to those who, after participating in the SVO, commit a repeated offense, Merkacheva believes. According to the expert, they could be afraid to return to the criminal path because of the personality of the head of the „musicians“.

Prigozhin positioned everything in such a way that if someone in the wild begins to commit crimes after the SVO, then he will personally deal with this, the expert notes. – In fact, the number of offenses that people re-commit after returning from Wagner is high.

It is difficult to predict the reaction of convicts who have passed the SVO. Yevgeny Prigozhin had a significant influence on them, but it is definitely impossible to assess their mood.

Now we are guessing on the coffee grounds. It seems to me that they will become more accurate. But it is impossible to guarantee and accurately predict this,” Eva Merkacheva shares and adds: “I wrote a study about criminals who committed various crimes, from moderate to especially serious, when they returned after going through the Afghan or Chechen campaigns.

“If the psyche is injured, then without rehabilitation, nothing will help a person not to make mistakes”

We also turned to a criminologist to understand how Yevgeny Prigozhin is perceived in prison circles:

— Let’s start with the fact that there has been no Wagner in Russia for two months now. And most of the convicts are now in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In addition, yes, Prigozhin has a criminal past, but he has never been a crime boss.

All experts agree that the criminal world will practically leave unnoticed the death of the leader of the Wagner PMC. It is also not worth expecting that convicts who have become part of a military company will react sharply:
Now PMC „Wagner“ does not have the opportunity to recruit convicts into its ranks in any way. Moreover, we do not know how many convicts are in the ranks of Wagner. We can guess, but we do not know how many died. Former prisoners who came to Wagner, either in Belarus or on a contract with the Ministry of Defense. Only such conditions were in June 2023, so there is no threat now.

Материалът What should Russians expect from the „musicians“ from „Wagner“ after the death of Prigozhin е публикуван за пръв път на Vihrogon.bg.

53-year-old Dmitry Utkin, who died yesterday in the plane in the Tver region, is an almost mythologized person.

An obsessive fan of Hitler and a neo-Nazi, a conspirator professing the „folk Slavic faith“, with several awards for bravery Hero of Russia – he is the real creator of „Wagner“ – a private mercenary army of criminal criminals.

On the evening of August 23, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private plane crashed in the Tver region.

The Ministry of Emergencies of the Russian Federation reported that 10 people died in the crash, three of whom were crew members.

Rosaviatsia reported that Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin were on the flight’s passenger list. „Medusa“ briefly tells the biography of the last one, after whom PMC „Wagner“ was named, reported RusDelphi.

Dmitry Utkin, with the call sign Wagner, began participating in mercenary operations in 2013. Before that, according to Fontanka, he served as a lieutenant colonel in the Pskov Special Forces Brigade of the GRU of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Utkin is said to have chosen his nickname out of sympathy for the ideology of the Third Reich (Richard Wagner is said to be Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer). Those who knew Utkin also told reporters about his Nazi views.

After being discharged from the reserve, Utkin, along with other former security service personnel, went to Syria to fight on the side of President Bashar al-Assad as part of the Russian mercenary group Slavic Corps.

There, in October 2013, they were almost surrounded by rebels and forced to return to Moscow. Later, the leadership of the „Slavic Corps“ was sentenced to three years in a mercenary colony.

Almost immediately after his return, Utkin left for Ukraine – already at the head of his own group of mercenaries. This detachment was called Wagner’s group. Veterans of the Slav Corps were spotted in the spring of 2014, first in Crimea and then in Donbass, where they fought on the side of pro-Russian separatists. According to Gazeta.ru, Wagner’s squad may have been involved in the assassination of several field commanders of the self-proclaimed LPR.

In 2015, Wagner and his squad returned to Syria again, having previously undergone training at a specially equipped base in the Krasnodar Territory, RBC reports.

For the first time in the public field, Utkin appeared on December 9, 2016 – he was spotted at a solemn reception in the Kremlin in honor of Heroes of the Fatherland Day, the recording of which was broadcast by Channel One. The president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed that Utkin was indeed among the invitees, as he was a „holder of the Order of Bravery“.

In 2021, a case was opened in Ukraine against Utkin for encroachment on the country’s territorial integrity, the press service of the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office reported.

According to the investigators, he took part in the military operations in Donbas „under the prior agreement of officials of the Russian armed forces and under their control“ from July 2014 to March 2015.

„In January-February 2014, his units conducted intensive combat operations against units of the ATO forces (anti-terrorist operation — cf. Meduza) in the direction of Debaltsevo. During the fighting, the head of the „Wagner“ PPK was directly subordinate to the commander of the 2nd Army Corps, Lieutenant General of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Utkin commanded PMC Wagner during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and was most likely in Ukraine himself.

From the beginning of June 2023, Utkin remains the commander of the PMC. This follows from his statement published in the telegram channel Wagner Unloading, which is associated with Prigozhin.

Nothing is reliably known about Dmitry Utkin’s role in Prigozhin’s failed June rebellion. However, according to a Reuters source close to the leadership of the self-proclaimed DPR, it was Utkin who may have led Wagner’s column of fighters heading towards Moscow.

In July, Utkin, together with Prigozhin, talked with PMC Wagner’s mercenaries in Belarus. This was Prigozhin’s first public appearance after the failure of his rebellion and the news of his „departure“ to Belarus.

A video of the speech appeared on Telegram channels associated with the group on July 19. In it, Prigozhin said that PMC mercenaries intend to make the Belarusian army the „second army of the world“ and in the event of an armed conflict, side with Lukashenko. According to him, PMCs will not stay long in Belarus, after which the fighters will return to African countries and to the front in Ukraine.

„This is not the end, this is only the beginning of the greatest work in the world, which will be done very soon,“ the man with a voice similar to Utkin said afterwards. „Well, welcome to hell.“

These are also his last words in the public space that are known at the moment.

Материалът The last words of the neo-Nazi Utkin – „Wagner“: „This is only the beginning of the greatest work in the world“ е публикуван за пръв път на Vihrogon.bg.

Cader Wagner

The army of Belarus is conducting military exercises with fighters from the Russian private military company „Wagner“, reports „Reuters“.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the country, they are carried out at a military base near the city of Brest, on the border with Poland.

Poland has already moved more than 1,000 soldiers to the eastern part of the country because of the presence of „Wagner“ in Belarus.

We recall that the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, invited „Wagner“ to start operations in his country as part of the agreement that ended the rebellion in Russia.

He stated that the Wagnerites were offered accommodation in former military camps. Subsequently, it was specified that it was a tent camp near the town of Osipovichi, Mogilev region.

On June 15, observers in Belarus reported a large convoy from PMC „Wagner“ arriving in the country. In the next two days, two other columns were spotted in the direction of Osipovici.

Yesterday, Prigozhin said in Telegram that he will make the Belarusian army „second in the world“.

This is a new gripe with the Russian military leadership.

Prigogine always said that the first army in the world was „Wagner“.

Материалът Prigozhin’s private army „Wagner“ was deployed on the border with Poland е публикуван за пръв път на Vihrogon.bg.

The President of Belarus Lukashenko has decided to reap all possible benefits from his role as „savior of peace in Russia“.

He began making occasional statements to the Belarusian elite and detailing how he had averted a major massacre within hours.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin wanted to „cleanse“ Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin during the attempted armed uprising in Russia, Reuters reports.

Putin initially vowed to crush the attempted riot, comparing it to wartime times before the 1917 revolution and subsequent civil war, BTV reported.

Hours later, however, a deal was made with Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus.

Follow all on the subject here „I understand that a brutal decision has been made to purge all the rebels,“ Lukashenko told a briefing with his military chiefs and journalists on Tuesday, Belarusian media said.

„I suggested he take his time. I told him let’s talk to Prigozhin and his commanders first,“ adds Lukashenko.

“Listen, Sasha, this is unnecessary. He doesn’t even pick up the phone, he doesn’t want to talk to anyone,“ Putin replied.

„This is the most trained part of the Russian army. Who can argue with that? My army understands it, we don’t have such people in Belarus,“ Lukashenko said.

He described the decision for Prigogine as pragmatic, as they can use the information they have to their advantage.

Материалът Lukashenko: Putin had decided to kill Prigozhin and everyone in Wagner е публикуван за пръв път на Vihrogon.bg.

In the country with 22,000 nuclear warheads, the fate of the entire world could someday be decided over a missed phone call and a fit of rage.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has revealed startling details of negotiations with the renegade head of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary army.

Lukashenko revealed that Vladimir Putin was furious that Prigozhin did not return calls during his armed adventure.

Lukashenko warned Prigozhin that he would be crushed like a cockroach if he tried to attack Moscow, and that the Kremlin would never grant his request to remove Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov, the Telegraph reported.

Prigozhin arrived in Belarus under a deal that ended his short-lived rebellion against the Russian army, the state-run Belta news agency reported, citing Lukashenko.

Lukashenko detailed his talks with Putin and Prigozhin on Saturday. According to the Belarusian president, Prigozhin was determined to advance with his fighters to Moscow, but quickly changed his mind after being informed by negotiators that he would face a serious response.

„I tried to convince him for a long time. And finally I said, “You know, you can do whatever you want, but don’t be offended. Our brigade is ready to be transferred to Moscow,“ Lukashenko revealed to state media.

Lukashenko explained to Prigozhin that even if he considered the riot a protest, the results of an attack could be catastrophic not only for Moscow, but also for neighboring nations.

He spoke to Putin by phone as early as 10 a.m. local time, after Wagner’s forces seized the military base of the southern Rostov-on-Don governorate and announced they were moving toward the capital.

Then Lukashenko realized that a „harsh decision“ had been made – to liquidate Prigozhin and his fighters.

„I advised Putin to take his time. Let’s talk with Prigozhin, with his commanders,“ Lukashenou clarified, stressing that the head of „Wagner“ rejected Putin’s calls and it was necessary to establish three communication channels with Rostov-on-Don in order to proceed with the negotiations with the mutinous soldiers.

Within an hour of his first conversation with Putin, Lukashenko was able to reach Prigozhin, who immediately picked up the phone and sounded excited about the opportunity to negotiate. The conversations were initially heated, and for the first half hour Prigozhin did not stop cursing.

After the situation calmed down, Lukashenko was able to negotiate an end to the rebellion by offering Prigozhin and his fighters immunity. Yevgeny Prigozhin agreed to go into exile in Belarus.

Материалът „Zhenya, I will crush you like a cockroach“: Putin was furious that Prigozhin did not answer his phone, Lukashenko said е публикуван за пръв път на Vihrogon.bg.

A plane linked to the founder of the Russian private military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has landed in Belarus. This is according to data from flight tracking app FlightRadar24.

Reuters confirms it is a plane linked from the United States to Autolex Transport, which the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) traces to Prigogine. This comes two days after the businessman agreed to end an almost 24-hour standoff in Russia. Talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko led (according to the Kremlin) to a decision for Prigozhin to go to Belarus.

His whereabouts have not been known since he left Rostov-on-Don on Saturday evening.

Earlier, such information came from the „Belarusian Gayun“ monitoring group, which reported that Prigozhin’s business plane had landed at Machulishchi Airport near Minsk. „Another business plane flew in from Russia“, probably from St. Petersburg (where it was reported days ago that Prigozhin’s plane had flown in).

However, FlightRadar24 shows that the Embraer Legacy 600 (RA-02795) that landed took off east of Rostov-on-Don, the city that Wagner occupied for the day and that Prigozhin left on the evening of June 24.

According to Important Stories and the Organized Crime and Corruption Investigative Project (OCCRP), a plane with the same number flew from Rostov-on-Don to St. Petersburg the day after the riot. FlightRadar confirms this, but there was a return flight on the night of June 27:

Is there a Wagner camp

In the meantime, the publication „Vjorstka“ reported that the construction of a camp for „Wagner“ fighters with a capacity of 8,000 people is underway in Asipovichi, Mogilev region. There will be several camps in total and only one of them will be in Asipovici. The area of the camp near the city that is being talked about should be 24 thousand square meters, and the journalists came with the mercenaries

A source of „Vjorstka“, close to the leadership of the Mogilev region, also spoke about instructions from the authorities to build such a camp.

Asipovichi (which is Osipovichi in Russian) is located in the central part of Belarus, less than 300 km from the Russian border and about 200 from the Ukrainian border.

However, „Belarusian Gayun“ reported earlier that at the moment there is no data to confirm that a camp for PMC „Wagner“ is being built near Asipovichi. The organization explains that for the past day they have not noticed any particular activity in the region, „not to mention the construction of such a large object“. The data of a „foreign (Russian) publication that they managed to get comments from sources close to the leadership of the Mogilev region“ raises questions, „Belarusian Gayun“ continues.

At the moment, there is no information about PMC „Wagner“ columns being located or moving in Belarus. It is also not known exactly how many fighters could arrive there: Prigozhin claimed he had 25,000 mercenaries, but many estimates vary between half and a third of that number. Last night, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Wagner fighters could either sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense or go home or go to Belarus.

Материалът Latest information on Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane е публикуван за пръв път на Vihrogon.bg.

Absolutely everything is possible now in Russia.

Wagner’s forces are moving extremely fast towards Moscow and are already several hundred kilometers away.

Meanwhile, media outlets have reported that a Russian government plane used by President Vladimir Putin took off from Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport at 2:16 p.m. St. Petersburg time and then disappeared from radar. The pilots apparently stopped transmitting data when the Ilyushin plane was just south of the Russian city of Tver. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the president had left the capital and said the head of state was working in his office.

Here is what Grigor Lilov writes:

Wagnerites established control over Voronezh. Barricades of buses and loose resistance could not stop them.

Lipetsk region is also in the hands of the Wagnerites. However, the city has not yet been attacked. Anti-tank trenches were dug along its exits.

The curious thing is that there is complete calm in Crimea and the local governor has declared that he will not take any extraordinary measures.

The forward units of Prigozhin and the revolted Russian army units are already moving in the Moscow region – a hundred kilometers from the capital.

So far, they practically do not meet strong resistance. Kadyrov’s units, which he sent to Rostov, were caught in a huge traffic jam and thus pinned in place without any possibility of movement.

Putin signed two laws – to enlist in the regular army for a salary investigative and convicted persons and to arrest citizens for 30 days in connection with martial law, without officially charging them. The first law suggests that the Kremlin’s confidence in the regular army is zero. At the same time, Prigozhin announced that a full airborne regiment had joined his army advancing on Moscow. Unofficially, it is reinforced with other. parts incl. and tanks.

In the late afternoon, Putin held a conversation with Erdogan. According to the Kremlin website, the Turkish president has fully supported the Kremlin. According to the official announcement of the state-run Anatolia Agency, „Erdogan has expressed Turkey’s readiness to make a real contribution to quickly ensuring calm in the Russian Federation and has emphasized the importance of preserving common sense within the framework of decisions.“ It has been unofficially reported that Erdogan is ready to broker a peace deal between the warring power camps in Russia.

In addition, talks were held by Putin with heads of Central Asian countries of the CIS.

More measures are being taken in Moscow to tighten the state of emergency. Anti-tank hedgehogs, etc. are being prepared. means of building barricades. The army (the units next to Moscow) refused to intervene on either side and declared neutrality. At the Kremlin’s disposal are only the Rossgvarda and the division of the Ministry of the Interior, which will be quickly crushed by the Wagnerites and the rebel army units with combat experience.

The information about the transfer of the state leadership to Petersburg is increasing more and more, given the danger of battles in Moscow and the capture of the capital. In this connection with St. Petersburg, they also tightened measures to control citizens, bridges, various strategic sites, etc., entry-exit highways, etc.

Austrian media reports chaos in Russia. According to data published by „oe24“, direct flights from the Russian capital to Tbilisi, Astana and Istanbul have already been sold out.

Queues at gas stations, empty shelves in markets, the publication reports.

Residents of Rostov-on-Don talk about long queues at gas stations. Grocery stores in Rostov, Moscow and Voronezh also reported heavy traffic as well as empty shelves. Because of this, some stores have limited sales of products such as sugar, salt, flour, butter and cereals.

The association of producers of food products told the state news agency TASS that there is no cause for concern, stocks are sufficient. Food stocks in the Rostov region are also sufficient, „supplies for a week have been stored,“ the association said.

The struggle for power in Russia continues to escalate. The head of „Wagner“ Yevgeny Prigozhin issued a challenge to the Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu and the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. If they did not come to him, Wagner’s mercenaries would march all the way to Moscow, Prigozhin declared. In his speech before noon today, President Vladimir Putin called the rebels „traitors.“

Later in the day, it was reported that columns of PMC „Wagner“ had headed for Moscow. Minutes ago, Prigozhin announced on his Telegram channel that the fighters are already in the territory of the Moscow Region, reported aktualno.com.

Meanwhile, media outlets have reported that a Russian government plane used by President Vladimir Putin took off from Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport at 2:16 p.m. St. Petersburg time and then disappeared from radar. The pilots apparently stopped transmitting data when the Ilyushin plane was just south of the Russian city of Tver. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the president had left the capital and said the head of state was working in his office.

Материалът Putin fled Moscow: Here is where he barricades himself е публикуван за пръв път на Vihrogon.bg.