Russian intelligence agencies made threats to harm the families of Wagner mercenary group leaders as the group marched to Moscow, a new report by The Telegraph daily states.
The report might offer clues into
why Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin may have abruptly called off his mutinous
march just hours before reaching the Russian capital on Saturday, May 24
“It has also been assessed that
the mercenary force had only 8,000 fighters rather than the 25,000 claimed and
faced likely defeat in any attempt to take the Russian capital,” the newspaper
wrote.
The Telegraph did not name the
specific Wagner leaders whose families were allegedly threatened and it was not
possible to independently verify the report’s claims.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said late Saturday that President Vladimir Putin agreed to allow Prigozhin to
escape criminal mutiny charges in exchange for standing down and going into
exile in neighboring Belarus.
But the Kommersant business
daily, and later state news agencies, reported Monday that Prigozhin was still
under investigation for an armed rebellion that Putin had slammed as a
betrayal.
The Telegraph cited its sources
as saying that President Vladimir Putin "will now try to assimilate Wagner
Group soldiers into the Russian military and take out its former leaders"
following this weekend's dramatic events.
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