Russia opens criminal case against Wagner: TASS

A criminal case into calls for rebellion coming from Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has been opened amid the seriousness of the situation and a threat of escalation of confrontation in Russia, the Federal Security Service’s Public Relations Center said.

"Amid the seriousness of the situation and the threat of escalation of confrontation in the Russian Federation the FSB has opened a criminal case into the fact of a call for an armed rebellion on the part of Yevgeny Prigozhin," it said.

The head of the Wagner mercenary group vowed Saturday to "go to the end" to topple the Russian military leadership, whom he accused of launching strikes on his men, while the country's prosecutor general said he was under investigation for "armed rebellion".

"We are going onwards and we will go to the end," Yevgeny Prigozhin, 62, said in an audio message.

"We will destroy everything that stands in our way," he added in the most audacious challenge to President Vladimir Putin since the start of the offensive in Ukraine last year.

He later claimed his forces had shot down a Russian military helicopter.

After Prigozhin's statement, the mayor of Moscow said on Saturday that "anti-terror" measures were being taken in the Russian capital.

"In connection with the incoming information in Moscow, anti-terrorist measures aimed at strengthening security are being taken," Sergei Sobyanin said on social media.

Prigozhin later claimed he was inside the army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, and that his fighters controlled the city's military sites.

Russia's military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don are a key logistical base for its offensive in Ukraine.

"We are inside the (army) headquarters, it is 7:30 am (0430 GMT)," Prigozhin said in a video on Telegram. "Military sites in Rostov, including an aerodrome, are under control," he added.

He said that planes taking part in the Ukraine offensive "are leaving as normal" from the airfield.

"We took (the aerodrome) under control so that the attack aviation did not strike us, but strike Ukrainians," Prigozhin said.

He called on Russians not to believe what they are being told on state television.

"When they tell you that PMC Wagner interfered with work and that's why something on the front collapsed.. Things on the front collapsed not for this reason," he said, addressing Russians.

"A huge amount of territory is lost. Soldiers have been killed, three, four times more than what it says in documents shown to the top (leadership)."

Prigozhin claimed Russia's Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov "ran away from here when he found out that we are approaching the building."

Authorities in Rostov have urged residents to stay at home.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Wagner mercenaries of "treason" on Saturday in a live address to the nation as Russia faced a rebellion by the Wagner mercenary group that has vowed to topple Moscow's military leadership.

In the address, Putin urged the consolidation of all forces and said the actions were "a betrayal" and "a knife in the back of our people," reports BBC.

Without specifically mentioning Wagner group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin says the high "ambitions" of some have led to "high treason".

/KN/