Yevgeny Prigozhin's media holding group is to shut down, the director of one of its outlets said, highlighting the mercenary chief's worsening fortunes a week after the collapse of a brief mutiny staged by his Wagner Group fighters.
Under a deal that halted the mutiny, Mr Prigozhin, a former ally of President Vladimir Putin, was allowed to go into exile in Belarus and his men given the choice of joining him, being integrated into Russia's armed forces or returning home.
Patriot Media, whose most prominent outlet was the RIA FAN news site, had taken a strongly nationalist, pro-Kremlin editorial line, while also providing positive coverage of Prigozhin and his Wagner Group.
"I am announcing our decision to close down and to leave the country's information space," RIA FAN director Yevgeny Zubarev said in a video clip posted late yesterday on the holding's social media accounts.
Mr Zubarev gave no reason for the decision.
Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on Friday that the country's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor had blocked media outlets linked to Mr Prigozhin, without elaborating. The watchdog could not be reached today for comment.
Russian media have also reported that a "troll factory" allegedly used by Prigozhin to influence public opinion in foreign countries including the United States had been disbanded.
In his video post, Mr Zubarev praised Patriot Media's record, saying it had defended both Mr Prigozhin and President Putin from attacks by the anti-Kremlin opposition, including jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny.
The Patriot Group had worked "against Alexei Navalny and other representatives of the opposition who genuinely tried to destroy our country", he said.
Despite the abortive mutiny, Russian authorities have not officially outlawed the Wagner Group, but Putin said on Tuesday that the finances of Prigozhin's catering firm would be investigated.
He said Wagner and its founder had received almost $2 billion from Russia in the past year.
Wagner's men have fought some of the bloodiest battles of the 16-month war in Ukraine, and its ranks have included thousands of ex-prisoners recruited from Russian jails.
Under Mr Prigozhin's leadership, the group has grown into a sprawling international business with mining interests and fighters in Africa and the Middle East.
It was founded in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and started supporting pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
Wagner boss 'gone off the rails' over money
Meanwhile, a top Russian propagandist accused the Wagner boss of "going off the rails" after receiving billions in public funds..
"Prigozhin has gone off the rails because of big money," Dmitry Kiselev, one of the main faces of the Russian propaganda machine, said on his weekly television show today.
"He thought that he can challenge the defence ministry, the state itself and the president personally."
Mr Kisilev said that Wagner's operations in Syria and Africa had given Mr Prigozhin a feeling of impunity that was later reinforced by his rag-tag forces' battlefield successes in eastern Ukraine.
Without providing any evidence, Kisilev said Wagner had received more than 858 billion rubles in state funds.
In a stunning admission earlier this week, President Vladimir Putin said for the first time that Russian authorities "fully" financed the paramilitary outfit.
Between May 2022 and May 2023, Wagner received more than 86 billion rubles from the Russian state, President Putin said.
Private mercenary groups are banned under Russian law.
