Despite speculation exiled Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin might take a hit from Vladimir Putin after an aborted march on Moscow, the mercenary leader resurfaced Monday with an ominous warning.
Prigozhin, 62, who has accepted sanctuary in Belarus under a deal to turn back his march to potentially challenge Russia's military leadership, posted a 40-second message on Telegram, promising to return to war, according to reports.
"Today we need your support more than ever," Prigozhin reportedly says, according to a Twitter translation. "Thank you for that.
"I want you to understand that our 'march of justice' was aimed at fighting traitors and mobilizing our society.
"I think we succeeded in a lot of that.
"In the near future, I am sure that you will see our next victories on the front. Thank you guys!"
Prigozhin's media holding group is to shut down. Patriot Media, whose most prominent outlet was the RIA FAN news site, had taken a strongly nationalist, pro-Kremlin editorial line, while also providing positive coverage of Prigozhin and his Wagner Group.
"I am announcing our decision to close down and to leave the country's information space," RIA FAN director Yevgeny Zubarev said in a video clip posted late Saturday on the holding's social media accounts.
Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on Friday that the country's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor had blocked media outlets linked to Prigozhin, without elaborating.
Russian media have also reported that a "troll factory" allegedly used by Prigozhin to influence public opinion in foreign countries including the United States had been disbanded.
In his video post, Zubarev praised Patriot Media's record, saying it had defended both Prigozhin and Putin from attacks by the anti-Kremlin opposition, including jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny.
The Patriot Group had worked "against Alexei Navalny and other representatives of the opposition who genuinely tried to destroy our country," he said.
Despite the abortive mutiny, Russian authorities have not officially outlawed the Wagner Group, but Putin said Tuesday the finances of Prigozhin's catering firm would be investigated.
He said Wagner and its founder had received almost $2 billion from Russia in the past year.
Wagner's men have fought some of the bloodiest battles of the 16-month war in Ukraine, and its ranks have included thousands of ex-prisoners recruited from Russian jails.
Under Prigozhin's leadership, the group has grown into a sprawling international business with mining interests and fighters in Africa and the Middle East.
It was founded in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and started supporting pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.