Russia has opened a criminal investigation into Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief and founder of the private military contractor Wagner, on charges of inciting armed mutiny against the Russian military leadership.
If convicted, Prigozhin could face a jail term of up to 20 years. The decision to charge and investigate him comes after Prigozhin promised to punish Russia’s military leadership, alleging that the Russian military killed some 2,000 of his troops in an air strike.
He also appeared to suggest that his 25,000-strong militia was on the way to take down the leadership of the Russian defense ministry in Moscow, and that his troops had entered the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, which is home to the Russian military headquarters for the southern region and also oversees the fighting in Ukraine….