Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Wagner fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to the state, three days after the mercenary group’s head Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash, reported Reuters. Putin signed the decree with immediate effect on Friday after the Kremlin declined any role in the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin. It said that Western suggestions that Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an "absolute lie".
Meanwhile, as per Reuters, the Kremlin declined to definitively confirm his death, citing the need to wait for test results.
This comes after Russia's aviation authority said that Prigozhin was on board a private jet that crashed on Wednesday evening northwest of Moscow with no survivors. The incident took place exactly two months after he led a failed mutiny against army chiefs, Reuters added.
Now, the move by Putin for a mandatory oath for employees of Wagner and other private military contractors is being seen as a clear move to bring such groups under tighter state control, the report added.
According to Reuters, the decree has been published on the Kremlin website and asks anyone carrying out work on behalf of the military or supporting Moscow’s "special military operation" in Ukraine to swear a formal oath of allegiance to Russia.
The wording of the oath includes a line in which those who take it promise to strictly follow the orders of commanders and senior leaders, the report added.
After the death of Prigozhin, President Putin offered condolences to the families of those killed in the crash. He spoke of Prigozhin in the past tense and cited "preliminary information" as indicating that the Wagnor chief and his top associates had all been killed.
While praising him, Putin said Prigozhin also made some "serious mistakes". Notably, Prigozhin led an armed mutiny against Russia’s defence leadership on June 23-24 which is later resolved by Belarus.
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