Chief of Wagner Group hands over "blood-stained" sledgehammer to EU Parliament

Ukrainska Pravda
·4 min read
217
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Chief of the Wagner Group [a Russian private military company, loyal to the government - ed.], has proposed to hand over a sledgehammer with fake blood stains to the European Parliament in response to a possible recognition of his group as a terrorist organisation. The "Wagners" representative has already given the sledgehammer to propagandist bloggers.

Source: Latvia-based Russian outlet Meduza; press service of Prigozhin’s company Concord; videos from Russian Telegram channels

Details: On 22 November, when Politico news outlet reported that members of the EU Parliament wanted to list the Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation, Concord’s press service posted Prigozhin’s comment on this matter on VKontakte and Telegram.

Quote from Prigozhin: "Today, I held a meeting of commanders of the Wagner Group and informed them of this sad news. I do not know by which law the EU Parliament is governed, but we declare the EU Parliament to be dissolved starting today by our law. But before this procedure enters into force, I have been instructed to submit an information briefcase to the EU Parliament. If you have their contacts, I am proposing to do this together, to prepare and send it."

Details: Later, Concord has invited the media outlets and bloggers "to take part in sending an information briefcase to the EU Parliament".

Prigozhin’s press service stated on the evening of 23 November that "the information briefcase is given to a representative of CYBER FRONT Z in order to be sent to the EU Parliament".

 

ScREENSHOT FROM VIDEO

 

ScREENSHOT FROM VIDEO

A video showing the transfer of this so-called briefcase appeared in Russian Telegram channels; there was the "blood-stained" sledgehammer in the violin case.

The channels have reported that Prigozhin’s lawyer has brought the briefcase with the sledgehammer to a meeting with bloggers who call themselves "Russia’s information troops".

Why this is important: Yevgeny Nuzhin, a former inmate who was recruited by the Wagner Group and sent to the war in Ukraine, where he surrendered, was murdered exactly with a sledgehammer. According to the media, he went back to Russia as a result of a prisoner swap, and he was executed there by having his head smashed in with a sledgehammer.

Atrocities of the Wagner Group is a long-known fact. Prigozhin’s mercenaries have been using murders with sledgehammers since the war in Syria. On the Internet, there is evidence of "Wagners" beating a person to death, quartering the body, and then burning it in 2017.

Background:

  • On 13 November, it became known that a Russian citizen was cruelly executed without any trial by having his head taped to a concrete block and smashed in with a sledgehammer. Yevgeny Prigozhin, Chief of the Wagner Group, hinted that this was his mercenaries’ doing. It is possible that they try to suppress a wish to surrender among Russian conscripts with such a video.

  • Later, a video showing the arrest procedure of two soldiers who refused to go to war was published on Telegram channels; the soldiers were demonstratively detained right during the formation.

  • On 20 September, the Russian State Duma [the lower house of the Federal Assembly, the national legislature of the Russian Federation - ed.] introduced the concepts of mobilisation and wartime into the Criminal Code and approved amendments to the penalty for desertion during mobilisation or wartime.

  • On 24 September, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law amending the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to specify harsher penalties for desertion, looting and surrender.

  • It is established by this law that the failure of subordinates to comply with a superior’s order issued in the established procedure during martial law, in wartime, or in conditions of armed conflict or combat operations, and the refusal to participate in military or combat operations, are punishable with two to three years’ imprisonment (part 2.1 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code).

  • After a video showing the execution of Yevgeny Nuzhin, a former inmate of Ryazan Penal Colony No. 3 and a member of the Wagner Group with a sledgehammer, recruiting convicts in colonies of Siberia and Far East has only intensified. The Wagner Group has "conscripted" convicts from at least six regions beyond the Urals over November: 150-200 people were taken from each colony.

  • In addition, Konstantin Kiselyov, who had been imprisoned for a double murder and later recruited to fight in Ukraine as part of the Wagner Group, has been awarded the Order of Courage in the Russian Federation.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!