Revenge for Prigozhin’s death
Russian volunteer corps stirs up Wagner mercenaries
08/25/2023, 06:55 am
Mercenaries are also fighting on the Ukrainian side, but Kiev distances itself from the Russian volunteer corps. After the alleged death of Prigozhin, the group of Russian fighters turns to the Wagner troops – and calls on them to atone for the death of their leader.
The commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), Denis Kapustin, has called on the fighters of the Wagner mercenary group to avenge the deaths of their founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and their commander Dmitry Utkin, which have not yet been officially confirmed. “You are now faced with a difficult decision. You can stand in a guard house of the Russian Ministry of Defense and serve as watchdogs for your commanders’ enforcers or take revenge,” Kapustin said in a video speech. In order to take revenge, however, they would have to switch to the side of Ukraine.
The Wagner founder is said to have died in a plane crash, and the Russian authorities have not yet identified Prigozhin’s body. President Vladimir Putin, however, already spoke in the past tense of the “talented businessman” and mercenary leader. “He was a person with a difficult fate and he made serious mistakes,” he said. During the Wagner fighters’ mutiny against the Russian leadership in June, Putin accused his longtime military henchman Prigozhin of treason, but then allowed him and his followers to travel to Belarus.
Prigozhin and his Wagner troupe did not have a good reputation at home because of their covert operations abroad and because of their brutality. But his criticism of mistakes made by the Russian military leadership also made him a hero to many Russians. The allegation was raised on social media that the alleged plane crash was actually an assassination attempt on Prigozhin – an assessment shared by many Western politicians and military experts.
The RVC is a group of Russian fighters fighting on the Ukrainian side, and the government in Kiev insists it has nothing to do with their attacks. Already in May and June, fighters of the Volunteer Corps together with the Volunteer Battalion “Legion Freedom of Russia” took part in attacks in the Russian border region of Belgorod near Ukraine. Kapustin is the mastermind behind the RVC’s alleged “sabotage actions.” He is also said to have founded the “Russian Volunteer Corps”. The Russian is considered a neo-Nazi.