Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, told the local authorities of a Russian city that he would dump the corpses of his fighters at their doorstep if the authorities attempted to prohibit a burial.
Tensions erupted in the Kuban city of Goryachy Klyuch when the local administration forbade Wagner from burying eight of their fighters. The move led the group to intimidate officials into submission, the New Tab reported.
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Prigozhin called the officials to threaten them, Wagner fighters stationed in the Donbass sent threatening videos, and armed fighters arrived in person to oversee the burials. Prigozhin threatened to dump the bodies of dead fighters at the doorsteps of officials who were attempting to refuse them.
“You just wait, degenerates, for us to have to come and deal with you. Because you f***ers are doing more harm than the Ukrainian army, than the Nazis. Because you are the Nazis, the f***ing administration of Goryachy Klyuch,” a masked Wagnerite, surrounded by armed fighters, said in a video posted to Russian social media, the Daily Beast reported.
Prigozhin announced the burial would take place the day before and invited locals to attend.
“The administration of Goryachy Klyuch forbid the burial of our Wagner fighters at the cemetery in Bakinskaya. Tomorrow at 10 a.m., the funeral will be held for our fighters. Everyone wanting to say goodbye to them, I invite you to the cemetery,” Prigozhin said in an audio message.
On March 20, several hundred locals gathered to attend the funeral. Very few, if any, knew the dead, according to the New Tab.
Others came from several surrounding cities to show their support; the outlet reported that the crowd was largely supportive of the Wagnerites.
“My opinion is that the enemy sits among us. Roughly speaking, I will go there now, and then they will not bury me on my land? This is blasphemy of the highest degree,” a man from Sochi told the outlet. “I came to say goodbye to the guys, to repay the debt. Well, see who can go against the Almighty. I am connected with them spiritually, we do one thing. I have enough acquaintances of the wounded who do not have arms … Specifically, there is no one [acquaintance] here, I don’t have to know anyone.”
After the priest’s blessing, several people got up to speak in support of the fighters and war in general. Some speeches condemned the local administrators for attempting to block the burial. One woman, who had studied in one of the Russian separatist provinces in 2015, praised the fighters. “God bless you all! You are the elite of this country, remember that,” she said.
At one point during the funeral, a car drove up playing loud music, but it turned out to be sent from Prigozhin. The car played his audio address.
“Thanks to all those who supported us and forced the administration of Goryachiy Klyuch not to interfere with the funeral of Wagner PMC fighters in the village of Baku. Thanks to those who came. We forced these b******s to hide in their offices and not prevent us from doing so. When we are together, we can do a lot,” he said. He was unable to attend the funeral in person.
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Wagner’s intimidation of the authorities extended until the next day. Prigozhin announced the following day that the region head promised that there would be no more obstacles to burials. He had previously called for the prosecutor general of Russia, Igor Krasnov, to punish Sergei Belopolsky, the head of Goryachy Klyuch, for discrediting volunteers and abuse of power. It’s unknown if higher authorities got involved in the dispute.
Of the eight fighters buried, four were convicts recruited from penal colonies. The New Tab identified 38-year-old Anatoly Plotnikov, 34-year-old Alexei Ivanov, 45-year-old Sergey Grigoriev, 22-year-old Stanislav Suleymanov, 27-year-old Oleg Korolev, 52-year-old Valery Grishin, 26-year-old Alexander Korenev, and 23-year-old Dmitry Maltsev as those buried.
