A senior Russian politician released a photo on Friday of himself holding a sledgehammer sent by the head of Wagner’s PMK mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin, a weapon seen as a symbol of revenge after a similar sledgehammer was used to kill a Wagner defector last year, Reuters reports

The gruesome gift was a token of gratitude to Serhii Mironov, the parliamentary leader of the pro-Kremlin Just Russia party, for his support of Wagner’s group and its actions on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.

Mironov, a former paratrooper, praised the Wagner mercenary group, which calls itself a private military company, a “heroic military formation” after leading an operation that saw Russian forces seize the Ukrainian town of Soledar this month.

In social networks, the politician published a photo of himself posing with a sledgehammer, thanking Eugene Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner, for the unusual gift.

The metal head of the sledgehammer had the Wagner logo and was decorated with a bunch of skulls.

“…This is a useful tool. With its help, we will strike at the Nazi ideology, which aims to destroy our country,” said Mironov, who, like many other Russian politicians, characterizes the war in Ukraine as existential. for the survival of Russia against the malicious West.

Ukraine and the West reject that characterization, saying their sole goal is to push Russian troops out of Ukraine after they invaded it last February.

While the Kremlin says groups like Wagner can operate freely abroad, private military companies are technically banned from operating in Russia.

On Tuesday, Mironov said that the activities of Wagner’s group should be legalized in Russia, and said that his party had prepared the necessary legislation.

Wagner founder Prigozhin, who had previously avoided the limelight, has risen to prominence in recent months, criticizing the country’s military commanders for what he says are failures on the battlefield and expressing views on various political issues.

Prigozhin spoke of the sledgehammer as a symbol of revenge against people considered traitors.

In November, an unverified video appeared on a Wagner-related social media channel showing someone using a sledgehammer to kill a Wagner fighter who had surrendered to Ukrainian forces and said he wanted to fight for them.

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