MOSCOW (Reuters) – Mutinous Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that he and his men would not turn themselves in on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.
Putin had earlier vowed to crush what he called an armed mutiny after Prigozhin’s private army seized control of a southern city as part of an attempt to oust the military leadership.
“The president makes a deep mistake when he talks about treason. We are patriots of our motherland, we fought and are fighting for it,” Prigozhin said in an audio message.
“Nobody is going to turn themselves in and confess at the order of the president, the FSB (security service) or anyone else. Because we don’t want the country to continue to live any longer in corruption, deceit and bureaucracy.”
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Osborn)