Russian spy chief behind Salisbury poisonings is tipped to take over command of Wagner Group

The Russian spy chief responsible for the Salisbury poisonings has been tipped to take command of the Wagner group following the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash.

Prigozhin, who launched a mutiny against Putin in June, was among 10 passengers aboard the plane that crashed into a ball of flames Wednesday night.

Since then, there has been speculation as to who will take over the warlord’s position as leader of the mercenary group.

Major General Andrey Averyanov, head of the GRU’s covert operations unit, was seen last month at the Russia-Africa summit, introducing himself to African leaders. It is now suspected that he will take over as head of the Wagner network in Africa.

Alicia Kearns, the conservative chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said she suspects General Averyanov could become leader, adding: “Putin cannot afford to lose access to Africa’s natural resources because their wealth enabling him to survive the sanctions and finance his illegal invasion of Ukraine. ,’ she said the i.

Emily Ferris of the Royal United Services Institute said Putin has probably “learned his lesson” that people with “dangerous ambitions” like Prigozhin are a “wildcard”.

“Any new (Wagner) leader would probably be someone hand-picked by the Kremlin,” she told the newspaper BBC.

Sources on Telegram claimed the move is part of a Kremlin plan to destroy Prigozhin’s influence in Africa and replace it instead with a private company controlled by General Andrey Averyanov’s GRU.

This GRU unit 29155 conducts foreign operations on behalf of Putin and has been linked to many murders, including the March 2018 Salisbury poisonings.

Wiltshire was shocked when Kremlin spies allegedly attempted to assassinate former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, 68, in Salisbury.

Both he and his then 33-year-old daughter Yulia were rushed to hospital in critical condition after coming into contact with Novichok – a deadly nerve agent concocted by Soviet scientists during the Cold War.

They survived the suspected attempted murder, but four months later, 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess was murdered in the same county.

She and her partner Charlie Rowley fell ill after handling the fake Nina Ricci perfume bottle used by the Moscow assassins in their initially botched assassination of the Skripals.

Mentally scarred and with declining eyesight, Mr Rowley found the perfume bottle in the bin of a charity shop before giving it as a gift to his then-girlfriend.

The pair were hospitalized within hours and Mrs Sturgess tragically passed away on 8 July.

It is believed that on March 4, 2018, the Russian state ordered the attack on Skripal – who was imprisoned in Russia for espionage in MI6.

The suspected killers – Russian intelligence officers Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin – were caught on CCTV as they traveled from Moscow to the cathedral city of Wiltshire.

A third suspect, senior Russian agent Denis Sergeev, is said to be the commander on the scene. All three fled back to Russia after their failed assassination attempt.

It took almost exactly a year for Salisbury to finally be declared free of all traces of the deadly nerve agent. Police say thousands could have been killed.

It is alleged that General Averyanov’s unit was also ordered by Putin to stage a coup in Montenegro in 2015, which failed, according to intelligence sources who also blame the unit for a campaign to destabilize Moldova and the poisoning of Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev in 2015. .