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US President Joe Biden has been briefed and his administration is closely monitoring fast-moving developments in Russia as Vladimir Putin vowed “decisive actions” to suppress mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his armed rebellion. “We are monitoring the situation and will be consulting with allies and partners on these developments,” according to a statement on Friday night from National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge. Prigozhin – once a longtime ally of Putin – is accused of treason for mounting what Russian officials have called an armed rebellion with his Wagner paramilitary group, fuelled by allegations that Russia failed to adequately support his forces in Ukraine. He also has accused Russia’s military leadership of striking against his forces. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday that he has spoken with G7 foreign ministers and European Union officials “to discuss the ongoing situation in Russia”. “The United States will stay in close coordination with Allies and partners as the situation continues to develop,” he added. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin Defense also is monitoring the crisis, according to Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also has been briefed on the situation. Canada’s Incident Response Group will meet on Saturday to discuss developments. “We’re in contact with our allies and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” he announced on Saturday. Russian prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation. In a televised address on Friday, Putin called Prigozhin’s maneuvers “a stab in the back of our country and our people”. The Wagner group was designated a transnational criminal organization by the US in January. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the group had an estimated 50,000 personnel inside Ukraine made up of 10,000 contractors and 40,000 people enlisted from Russian prisons. Wagner’s armed convoys have moved into Rostov-on-Don, the largest city in southern Russia and roughly 100km from the eastern Ukraine border. Rostov, with a population of roughly one million people, also houses Russia’s southern military district command and the 58th Combined Arms Army, currently engaged in major counteroffensive efforts against Ukraine. The governor of Russia’s Lipetsk province announced on Saturday that the group has now entered that region. Prigozhin also was among 13 Russians indicted by a federal grand jury for interfering in the US elections in 2016, allegedly using his Russia-based Internet Research Agency to wage “information warfare” with false social media accounts promoting bogus statements and messages that supported Donald Trump. He has denied wrongdoing but remains wanted by the FBI. Read More Russia-Ukraine war live: Kremlin denies Putin has fled Moscow as plane mysteriously disappears from radar Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin? The Wagner Group mercenary chief urging a ‘civil war’ against Putin Rishi Sunak ‘in touch with allies’ about Wagner group rebellion in Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing the greatest threat to his authority in two decades after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner paramilitary group and Putin's former ally, launched an apparent insurrection.

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The Kremlin has denied Vladimir Putin fled Moscow by plane after claiming Russia is ‘facing treason’ from members of the mutinous Wagner group. One of several planes that Putin uses for official visits took off from Moscow at 2.15pm local time, according to Flight Radar, which tracks aircraft in real-time. Less than half an hour later, it went off radar about 150 kilometres from Mr Putin’s official residents. “Putin is working at the Kremlin,” his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Tass news agency when asked about reports of him going to the north-west, possibly St Petersburg. FlightRadar data reported that at 15:06 that the plane disappeared from radars near the Tver region. It is believed one of Putin’s residences is located in the Tver region. Deputy premier Denis Manturov, left Russia for Turkey on Saturday, according to multiple reports. It comes after Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed he and his troops had taken control of key sites in Rostov-on-Don, a major logistical hub, including the airfield. An audio message on the social media app Telegram detailed Prigozhin’s fighters had crossed the border and were “ready to die” in confrontation with those in their way. “All of us are ready to die. All 25,000, and then another 25,000,” he said, after earlier accusing the Russian top brass of launching strikes against his men,” he said. “We are dying for the Russian people.” Prigozhin later took to the Wagner Telegram channel to share a chilling message for the Russian president. “Putin made the wrong choice. All the worse for him,” he wrote. “Soon we will have a new president.” However, Putin was quick to double-down on those working outside his regime and warned on Saturday morning of “inevitable punishment” for anyone dividing Russian society. “This is a criminal campaign. It is equivalent to armed mutiny,” Putin said. “Russia will defend itself and repel this move. We are fighting for the life and security of our citizens and our territorial integrity. “In the face of those who are fighting on the front, this is a stab in the back of the troops and the people of Russia.” Wagner are a private paramilitary group run by Prigozhin who currently claims to have more than 25,000 fighters under his command. Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Furious Putin calls Wagner mutiny ‘treason’ and ‘mortal blow’ to troops Rishi Sunak ‘in touch with allies’ about Wagner group rebellion in Russia Is this the end for Putin? His country now stands on the edge of civil war The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

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Yevgeny Prigozhin is the founder and bombastic leader of Russia's private military group Wagner. His organization is now in the midst of an apparent insurrection, after claiming control of military facilities in two cities and threatening to march on Moscow.

Once a low-profile businessman who benefited from having President Vladimir Putin as a powerful patron, Yevgeny Prigozhin moved into the global spotlight with Russia’s war in Ukraine. As the leader of a mercenary force who depicts himself as fighting many of the Russian military’s toughest battles in Ukraine, the 62-year-old Prigozhin has now moved into his most dangerous role yet: preaching open rebellion against his country’s military leadership. Prigozhin, owner of the Kremlin-allied Wagner Group, has escalated what have been months of scathing criticism of Russia’s conduct of the war by calling on Friday for an armed uprising to oust the defense minister. Russian security services reacted immediately, opening a criminal investigation and demanding Prigozhin’s arrest. In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin took Prigozhin’s threat, riot police and the National Guard scrambled to tighten security at key facilities in Moscow, including government agencies and transport infrastructure, Tass reported. Prigozhin, a onetime felon, hot-dog vendor and longtime associate of Putin, urged Russians to join his “march to justice”. ‘PUTIN’S CHEF’ Prigozhin and Putin go way back, with both born in Leningrad, now known as St Petersburg. During the final years of the Soviet Union, Prigozhin served time in prison – 10 years by his own admission –although he does not say what it was for. Afterwards, he owned a hot dog stand and then fancy restaurants that drew interest from Putin. In his first term, the Russian leader took then-French President Jacques Chirac to dine at one of them. “Vladimir Putin saw how I built a business out of a kiosk, he saw that I don’t mind serving to the esteemed guests because they were my guests,” Prigozhin recalled in an interview published in 2011. His businesses expanded significantly to catering and providing school lunches. In 2010, Putin helped open Prigozhin’s factory that was built on generous loans by a state bank. In Moscow alone, his company Concord won millions of pounds in contracts to provide meals at public schools. He also organised catering for Kremlin events for several years – earning him the nickname “Putin’s chef” – and has provided catering and utility services to the Russian military. In 2017, opposition figure and corruption fighter Alexei Navalny accused Prigozhin’s companies of breaking antitrust laws by bidding for around £300m in defence ministry contracts. MILITARY CONNECTION Prigozhin also owns the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-allied mercenary force that has come to play a central role in Putin’s projection of Russian influence in trouble spots around the world. The United States, European Union, United Nations and others say the mercenary force has involved itself in conflicts in countries across Africa in particular. Wagner fighters allegedly provide security for national leaders or warlords in exchange for lucrative payments, often including a share of gold or other natural resources. US officials say Russia may also be using Wagner’s work in Africa to support its war in Ukraine. In Ukraine, Prigozhin’s mercenaries have become a major force in the war, fighting as counterparts to the Russian army in battles aainst Ukrainian forces. That includes Wagner fighters taking Bakhmut, the city where the bloodiest and longest battles have taken place. By last month, Wagner Group and Russian forces appeared to have largely won Bakhmut, a victory with strategically slight importance for Russia despite the cost in lives. The US estimates that nearly half of the 20,000 Russian troops killed in Ukraine since December were Wagner fighters in Bakhmut. His soldiers-for-hire included inmates recruited from Russia’s prisons. RAGING AGAINST RUSSIA’S GENERALS As his forces fought and died en masse in Ukraine, Prigozhin raged against Russia’s military top brass. In a video released by his team last month, Prigozhin stood next to rows bodies he said were those of Wagner fighters. He accused Russia’s regular military of incompetence and of starving his troops of the weapons and ammunition they needed to fight. “These are someone’s fathers and someone’s sons,” Prigozhin said then. “The scum that doesn’t give us ammunition will eat their guts in hell.” A ‘BAD ACTOR’ IN THE US Prigozhin earlier gained more limited attention in the US, when he and a dozen other Russian nationals and three Russian companies were charged with operating a covert social media campaign aimed at fomenting discord ahead of Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory. They were indicted as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. The US Treasury Department has sanctioned Prigozhin and associates repeatedly in connection with both his alleged election interference and his leadership of the Wagner Group. After the 2018 indictment, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Prigozhin as saying, in a clearly sarcastic remark: “Americans are very impressionable people; they see what they want to see. I treat them with great respect. I’m not at all upset that I’m on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see him.” The Biden White House called him “a known bad actor,” and state department spokesman Ned Price said Prigozhin’s “bold confession, if anything, appears to be just a manifestation of the impunity that crooks and cronies enjoy under President Putin and the Kremlin.” AVOIDING CHALLENGES TO PUTIN As Prigozhin grew more outspoken against the way Russia’s conventional military conducted fighting in Ukraine, he continued to play a seemingly indispensable role for the Russian offensive, and appeared to suffer no retaliation from Putin for his criticism of Putin’s generals. Media reports at times suggested Prigozhin’s influence on Putin was growing and he was after a prominent political post. But analysts warned against overestimating his influence with Putin. “He’s not one of Putin’s close figures or a confidant,” said Mark Galeotti of University College, London, who specialises in Russian security affairs, speaking on his podcast, In Moscow’s Shadows. “Prigozhin does what the Kremlin wants and does very well for himself in the process. But that’s the thing – he is part of the staff rather than part of the family,” Galeotti said. Read More Russia-Ukraine war live: Wagner armed rebellion moves closer to Moscow as Putin threatens revenge Mapped: Inside Russian Wagner group’s location and road towards Moscow Furious Putin calls Wagner coup ‘treason’: ‘This is a stab in the back to everyone in Russia’ The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary