Some employees of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s media empire received a “severance package” as a gift after Wagner’s mercenary went into hiding in Belarus and was forced to close his Russian business.

This is reported in the Russian Telegram channel of the Cheka-OGPU, named after the first secret police of Soviet Russia, and independent researcher Chris Owen reports on his Twitter page.

According to the administrators of the Cheka-OGPU channel, a certain number of employees dismissed by Prigozhin received a package, which includes a miniature wooden sledgehammer, a set of stickers with the insignia of the Wagner group and a bracelet with the slogan “Honor, Motherland”. , Courage”.

The sledgehammer became a symbol of “Wagner” after a gruesome video surfaced on social media last November showing how Prigozhin’s fighters executed a deserter from the paramilitary formation with such a weapon after he was recaptured.

Chris Owen reminds us that the sledgehammer has become something of a state symbol in Russia and a way to express support for a “special military operation,” online stores sell, among other things, miniatures decorated with skulls and sold in decorative coffins.

The administrators of the Cheka-OGPU channel also suggest that the “separation package” prepared by Prigozhin could have conveyed a more ominous message: the idea that Wagner’s former mercenary employees are gone and will remain in his debt forever. .

Mercenary boss Wagner closes his propaganda empire

At the end of last week, the director of one of Prigozhin’s “information” channels, Yevhen Zubarev, announced the closure of the media empire of Wagner’s boss, built around the Patriot Media company. His most important broadcast channel was the news website RIA FAN, which had a strongly nationalist and pro-Kremlin editorial, despite Prigozhin’s sharp criticism of the military command in Moscow.

“I announce our decision to close and leave the country’s information space,” said RIA Director FAN Zubarev in a video posted on Saturday evening on the holding’s social media accounts. Zubarev did not name the reason for such a decision.

In his video post, Zubarev praised the work of Patriot Media, saying that it protects Prigozhin and Putin from attacks by the anti-Kremlin opposition, including jailed dissident Alexei Navalny.

Kommersant, Russia’s largest financial daily, reported a day earlier that Roskomnadzor, the country’s communications watchdog, had blocked media outlets linked to Prigozhin without giving details.

The Russian mass media also reported on the liquidation of the “troll factory” that Prigozhin allegedly used to influence public opinion in foreign countries, particularly in the United States.

Vladimir Putin personally announced an investigation into Prigozhin’s catering company

In a televised speech on June 27, just 3 days after Wagner’s rebellion ended, the Kremlin leader announced that Russian authorities would investigate Prigozhin’s Concordia company, which earned him the nickname “Putin’s cook,” to see if it was guilty of financial irregularities.

During a ceremony awarding soldiers who took part in the suppression of the uprising, Putin said that Concordia had received 80 billion rubles in government contracts to supply food to the Russian army.

“I hope that during this work no one stole anything or, let’s say, stole less. But, of course, we will investigate all these things,” Vladimir Putin said.

The head of the Kremlin said that the investigation will be started after it is established that Prigozhin received almost two billion rubles from the Russian state last year.

Putin also said that the Wagner group’s activities in Ukraine are fully funded by the Russian state and that it received 86 billion rubles ($1 billion) between May 2022 and May 2023, with the amount allocated by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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