RIGA, Latvia - Russia's Federal Security Service late Friday announced a criminal case against Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin, accusing him of "incitement to armed rebellion" after he declared an open conflict with Russia's military leadership and called on Russians to join 25,000 Wagner fighters against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other top commanders.
Prigozhin - whose private military company helped Russia seize the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Moscow's only significant territorial gain this year - accused the Russian military Friday of carrying out a strike on a Wagner camp, and appeared to threaten Shoigu, declaring, "This scum will be stopped!"