WEBSITES LINKED TO WAGNER BOSS BLOCKED IN RUSSIA

Sat 01 July 2023:

Websites linked to the Patriot media group, close to the chief of the Wagner mercenary force Yevgeny Prigozhin, were blocked Friday by Russia’s telecoms watchdog following their brief mutiny.

Several websites covering Russian political and economic affairs, including Ria Fan, were inaccessible from Russia, AFP journalists noted.

Their online addresses feature in the “restricted access” register of Roskomnadzor, the state agency responsible for blocking illegal and extremist content and which also blocks content banned by the authorities.

Other media run by the Patriot group, including Nevskiye Novosti and Ekonomika Segodnya, have announced on their respective Telegram channels that they are shutting down.

The media shutdown comes a week after Prigozhin led his Wagner force in a brief mutiny against Russia’s military command, in what most observers consider to have been the biggest threat to President Vladimir Putin’s authority in 20 years.

Prigozhin finally abandoned his advance on Moscow and accepted a deal brokered by Putin ally Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko under which he accepted exile there.

Prigozhin was involved in a number of other activities as well as the Wagner mercenary force, including media outlets and the food industry.

Until May he headed up the Patriot media group, which was set up in 2019, before becoming vice president of its board, according to Russian media.

-AFP

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