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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has ordered Wagner fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to the Russian state following the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in a bid to bring the mercenary group under its tight control.
The move comes after it was reported that the chief of the Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed in a deadly plane crash two months he led a mutiny against Moscow.
As per the news agency Reuters, the decree which was published on the website of Kremlin calls for the formal oath of allegiance to Russia for anyone working on behalf of the Russian government in its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin offered his condolences to all those who died in the plane crash and spoke about Yevgeny Prigozhin in the past tense. While praising the Wagner chief, President Vladimir Putin mentioned that he made some “serious mistakes.”
Kremlin has also rubbished the Western reports which claimed that Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed on its orders and called it an “absolute lie.”
“There is now a great deal of speculation surrounding this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the plane’s passengers, including Yevgeny Prigozhin. Of course, in the West, all this speculation is presented from a well-known angle,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“All of this is an absolute lie, and here, when covering this issue, it is necessary to base yourself on facts. There are not many facts yet. They need to be established in the course of investigative actions,” he said.
As per the “preliminary information” all the top executives of the Wagner group were killed in the crash along with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian officials said.
When asked about the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in the crash, Peskov said “If you listened carefully to the Russian president’s statement, he said that all the necessary tests, including genetic tests, will now be carried out. The official results – as soon as they are ready to be published, will be published.”