Chief of Wagner Group proposes to give "blood-stained" sledgehammer to EU Parliament

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Chief of the Wagner Group [a Russian private military company loyal to Putin - ed.], has proposed to give a sledgehammer with fake blood stains to the European Parliament in response to a possible recognition of his group as a terrorist organisation. The "Wagnerites’" chief has already given the sledgehammer to propagandist bloggers. 

Source: Latvia-based Russian outlet Meduza; press service of Prigozhin’s company Concord; videos from Russian Telegram channels

Details: On 22 November, when Politico reported that members of the EU Parliament wanted to list the Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation, Concord’s press service posted Prigozhin’s comment on this matter on the Russian social media VKontakte and Telegram. 

Quote from Prigozhin: "Today, I held a meeting of commanders of the Wagner Group and informed them of this sad news. I do not know by what law the EU Parliament is governed, but we declare the EU Parliament to be dissolved starting today under our law. But before this declaration enters into force, I have been instructed to submit an information briefcase to the EU Parliament. If you have their contact information, I am proposing to do this together, to prepare and send it."

Details: Later, Concord invited media outlets and bloggers "to take part in sending an information briefcase to the EU Parliament".

Prigozhin’s press service stated, on the evening of 23 November, that "the information briefcase has been given to a representative of CYBER FRONT Z in order to be sent to the EU Parliament".

Под вечер 23 ноября пресс-службы Пригожина сообщила, что "информационный кейс для отправки в Европарламент передан представителю КИБЕР ФРОНТА Z". 

A video showing the transfer of this so-called briefcase appeared on Russian Telegram channels; there was a "blood-stained" sledgehammer in a violin case.

Social media channels reported that Prigozhin’s lawyer has brought the briefcase with the sledgehammer to a meeting with bloggers who call themselves "Russia’s information troops".

Why this is important: Yevgeny Nuzhin, a former inmate who was recruited by the Wagner Group and sent to war in Ukraine, where he surrendered, was in fact murdered with a sledgehammer. According to the media, he had gone back to Russia thanks to a prisoner swap, and he was executed there by having his head smashed in with a sledgehammer. 

The Wagner Group have long been known to commit atrocities. Prigozhin’s mercenaries have been murdering people with sledgehammers since the war in Syria. On the internet, there is evidence from 2017 of "Wagnerites" beating a person to death, quartering the body, and then burning it.

Background:

• On 13 November, Russian telegram channels posted a video showing a Russian citizen being brutally executed without trial by having his head taped to a concrete block and smashed in with a sledgehammer. Yevgeny Prigozhin, Chief of the Wagner Group, hinted that this was his mercenaries’ doing. It is possible that this video was intended to deter any wish among Russian conscripts to surrender.. 
• Later, a video showing the arrest of two soldiers who refused to go to war was published on Russian Telegram channels; the soldiers were visibly detained while standing in formation. 
• On 20 September, the Russian State Duma [the lower house of the Federal Assembly, the national legislature of the Russian Federation - ed.] introduced the concepts of mobilisation and wartime into the Criminal Code and approved amendments to the penalty for desertion during mobilisation or wartime.
• On 24 September, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law amending the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to impose harsher penalties for desertion, looting and surrender.
• The Criminal Code provides that the failure of subordinates to comply with a superior’s order issued via the established procedure under martial law, in wartime or in conditions of armed conflict or combat operations, and the refusal to participate in military or combat operations are punishable by two to three years’ imprisonment (part 2.1 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code).
• After a video showing the execution with a sledgehammer of Yevgeny Nuzhin, a former inmate of Ryazan Penal Colony No. 3 and a member of the Wagner Group,the recruitment of convicts in penal colonies of Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation has only intensified. The Wagner Group has "conscripted" convicts from at least six regions beyond the Urals in the month of November: 150-200 people were taken from each colony.
• In addition, Konstantin Kiselyov, who had been imprisoned for a double murder and was later recruited to fight in Ukraine as part of the Wagner Group, has been awarded the Order of Courage by the Russian Federation.

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