Masked men claiming to belong to the Wagner group have warned the Kremlin to “get ready for us” after the reported death of their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“There’s a lot of talk right now about what the Wagner group will do. We can tell you one thing: we are getting started, get ready for us,” the men warned in a video posted on Russian Telegram channels.
Mercenary chief Mr Prigozhin is reported to be among 10 people killed in a plane crash in Russia.
Footage showed the flaming wreckage after a private jet came down near Moscow on Wednesday evening.
The plane carrying three pilots and seven passengers was travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg, according to officials cited by Russia’s state news agency Tass.
Mr Prigozhin was on the passenger list for the plane, Russia’s civil aviation authority said.
Mr Prigozhin’s fate has been the subject of intense speculation ever since he mounted a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in late June.
President Putin and the Kremlin have yet to comment on the crash.
