
AKIPRESS.COM - Russia’s FSB security service has opened a criminal case against Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary force, for calling for an armed mutiny, Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency said.
Prigozhin said that his call to action against the Russian military was not a mutiny but a “march for justice”. Earlier, Prigozhin accused Russia’s military leadership of ordering a rocket attack on Wagner’s field camps in Ukraine, where “huge numbers” of his fighters had been killed.
The deputy commander of Russia’s war in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, told Wagner fighters to obey Russian President Vladimir Putin, accept Moscow’s commanders and return to their bases.
Moscow’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin said that anti-terrorist measures were being taken in the Russian capital, including additional checks on roads to reinforce security, Reuters has reported.
The increased security measures in Russia’s capital come amid claims by Wagner mercenary force chief Prigozhin that his fighters had entered Russia to remove senior military leaders in Moscow.
The governor of the Lipetsk region in central Russia said that the M-4 motorway connecting Moscow with southern regions was closed to traffic at the border with the Voronezh region, some 400km (around 250 miles) south of Moscow, Reuters reports.
The motorway closure comes amid reports that an armed convoy of Wagner fighters had entered Russian territory with the stated aim of removing the country’s military leadership.