Moscow, Jun. 24, (dpa/GNA) - The Russian secret service FSB is investigating Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin for an attempted military coup, Interfax news agency reported on Friday.
The head of the private army had called for a fight against Moscow’s military leadership on Friday evening, according to the news agency.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin had been informed about the case.
Russian state agency TASS reported security in Moscow was being strengthened, with key facilities including government agencies and transport infrastructure under increased protection.
Earlier, Prigozhin had accused Moscow’s military leadership of attacking his mercenary units and threatened countermeasures.
Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had Wagner camps in the hinterland attacked with artillery, helicopters and missiles, Prigozhin said in a voice message circulated by his press service on Telegram on Friday.
He said he had 25,000 men under orders who would now investigate why such arbitrariness was prevailing in the country.
“Anyone who tries to resist us, we will consider them a threat and kill them immediately,” Prigozhin threatened. The Russian defence ministry denied an attack.
According to Prigozhin, Shoigu came specially to Rostov-on-Don, a city of over 1 million people near the Ukrainian border, to lead the operation against Wagner.
“At 9 pm (1800 GMT) he fled – cowardly as a woman – not to explain why he had helicopters take off and missile strikes to kill our boys. This beast will be stopped,” Prigozhin said.
He spoke of a “large number” of dead but did not give an exact number of the mercenaries allegedly killed in the strike.
The FSB said Prigozhin’s statements “effectively constitute calls for an armed civil conflict on Russian territory,” TASS reported citing the FSB’s press office.
The FSB called on Wagner fighters “not to commit irreparable mistakes, to stop any force actions against the Russian people, and not to comply with criminal and traitorous orders of Prigozhin, and to take measures on his apprehension,” TASS reported.
The Defence Ministry also denied Prigozhin’s allegations. All allegations were false and a “provocation,” the ministry said in a statement circulated in the evening.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee also called the allegations baseless.
“The allegations spread in the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin have no basis in fact. That is why the FSB has initiated criminal proceedings on the basis of these statements for calling for an armed coup,” the agency’s widely distributed statement said.
In addition to the FSB, practically all other Russian security organs belong to the committee.
The criminal investigation into Prigozhin’s actions was justified, Russia’s chief prosecutor said in a statement on Telegram. A charge of organizing an armed insurrection carried a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment, the prosecutor’s office said.
GNA