After the death of the head of the Wagner mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, it is still unclear what will happen to the group. Viktor Sobolev, a deputy of the State Duma, has a clear opinion as to the future of the mercenaries. This is reported by the media project NEXTA via X, formerly Twitter.
“The Wagner mercenaries will cease to exist, the fighters will be allowed to leave the country or sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense,” NEXTA quotes Sobolev as saying. “This is an illegal armed group. There should be no armed people in the state who are not subordinate to the state. This led to a rebellion. We were on the brink of civil war.”
Further, NEXTA writes that, according to Sobolev, not all of the Wagner mercenaries should be given the opportunity to serve under the Russian Defense Ministry. This offer applies only to those who did not participate in Prigozhin’s “March of Justice”.
Yevgeny Prigozhin had died in a plane crash. Although the exact cause is not clear, some parties suspect an act of revenge by Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Wagner mercenary’s revolt was behind the crash. Prigozhin had marched on Moscow in June to voice his displeasure with the Russian Defense Ministry.
Image: Kremlin.ru, Владимир Путин (27-04-2023), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image size modified)
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