MOSCOW: Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was feared dead on Wednesday (Aug 23) in a plane crash near Moscow, was a Kremlin confident catapulted to infamy by Russia's offensive in Ukraine
Prigozhin's order in June that his private fighting group march on Moscow to unseat Russia's top brass presented the most serious challenge to President Vladimir Putin's hold on power over more than two decades.
His forces captured a key military headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia before setting their course for Moscow, where authorities beefed up security in anticipation of a showdown. "The evil that the military leadership of the country brings must be stopped," Prigozhin announced after claiming the defence ministry had launched strikes on Wagner bases.to the mutineers and Prigozhin, who appeared in footage this week vowing to make Africa"freer" and suggested he was on the continent.
Before Putin, who accused Prigozhin of treason, ordered troops to Ukraine in February last year, the 62-year-old mercenary head dispatched fighters from his private force to conflicts in the Middle East and Africa but always denied involvement. That changed last year when he announced himself as the founder of the Wagner group and began a mass recruitment drive at Russia's prisons for foot soldiers to fight in exchange for an amnesty.
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