THE SHADOW immigration Minister has blasted Russia as a “Mafia state”.
Speaking to GB News, Stephen Kinnock said: “Six months ago, I called on the British government to prescribe the Wagner group as a terrorist organisation. I think our government should do that, but for some reason it isn’t. I think we have to look at this and say, Russia is a mafia state. And this is one mafia clan, striking back against another. That would appear to be what’s happening
“What we’re seeing here is difficult to speculate and we don’t know all of the facts but what we do know is that Mr. Prigozhin is a war criminal. He should have been brought to justice in the International Criminal Court for his crimes
“What we have to do is just redouble our support for the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people and give them the military and diplomatic and economic support that they need, so that Putin’s illegal war can be reversed, and the Russian forces can be expelled from Ukraine. That should be our number one priority and we need to stay focused on that.”
The Kremlin has still not commented on Wednesday’s plane crash in which Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed to have died. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin made no mention of the crash as he addressed an international summit via video link. Authorities say all 10 people on the plane were killed near Moscow – and passengers included Prigozhin and his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin. There’s huge speculation about what happened. UK defence sources tell the BBC that Russia’s FSB intelligence agency is most likely to be responsibleThe Wagner mercenary group was very active in Ukraine until Prigozhin led a short-lived mutiny in June – Putin called it “treachery” at the time.
