Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Wagner fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to the state, three days after the mercenary group’s head Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash. Putin signed the decree with immediate effect on Friday after the Kremlin declined any role in the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin. It said that Western suggestions that Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an "absolute lie".  

As per the sources, the decree which was published on the website of the Kremlin calls for a formal oath of allegiance to Russia for anyone working on behalf of the Russian government in its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Fighters must pledge “their loyalty to the Russian Federation... strictly follow their commanders and superiors’ orders, and conscientiously fulfill their obligations,” it reads, according to the Moscow Times.

Described in the decree as a step to forge the spiritual and moral foundations of the defense of Russia, the wording of the oath includes a line in which those who take it promise to strictly follow the orders of commanders and senior leaders.

Prigozhin, who led an armed mutiny against Russia’s defense leadership on June 23-24, was on board a private jet that crashed on Wednesday evening northwest of Moscow, according to the Russian aviation authorities. There were no survivors.

After the death of Prigozhin, President Putin offered condolences to the families of those killed in the crash. He spoke of Prigozhin in the past tense and cited "preliminary information" as indicating that the Wagner chief and his top associates had all been killed.  

While praising him, Putin said Prigozhin also made some "serious mistakes".

Kremlin has also rubbished the Western reports which claimed that Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed on its orders.

"There is now a great deal of speculation surrounding this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the plane's passengers, including Yevgeny Prigozhin. Of course, in the West, all this speculation is presented from a well-known angle," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"All of this is an absolute lie, and here, when covering this issue, it is necessary to base yourself on facts. There are not many facts yet. They need to be established in the course of investigative actions," he said.

When asked about the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in the crash, Peskov said "If you listened carefully to the Russian president's statement, he said that all the necessary tests, including genetic tests, will now be carried out. The official results - as soon as they are ready to be published, will be published."

Image source: AP