Estonian Foreign Minister Sends Handcuffs to The Hague to Await Wagner Boss Following Sledgehammer Stunt

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In a video released on Friday, November 25, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said he would send handcuffs to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to await Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.

Reinsalu’s video came after Prigozhin arranged for a sledgehammer, partially coated in what resembled blood, to be delivered to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, in response to a resolution declaring Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, according to reporting by OCCRP.

Several MEPs have called for Wagner, which has sent mercenaries to Ukraine, to be placed on an EU list of terror groups.

“This week Prigozhin sent a bloodshed hammer to [the] European Parliament after parliament recognized Russia as a terrorist sponsor,” Reinsalu said in his video beside a red case containing handcuffs. “I will send these handcuffs to [The] Hague, International Criminal Court headquarters, where they are going to wait [for] Prigozhin and his accomplices for the crimes against [the] Ukrainian people.”

Earlier this month, a Telegram channel associated with Wagner posted a video claiming to show one of their fighters being executed with a sledgehammer after he defected to Ukraine. Storyful confirmed the existence of the video, but could not verify its authenticity.

The BBC reported that Prigozhin, in a statement, described the video as “excellent directorial work that’s watchable in one sitting”.

“I think this movie is called A Dog’s Death for a Dog,” he said, as cited by the BBC.

Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper based in Latvia, reported that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the video.

“We don’t know what it is or if it’s real. It’s none of our business,” Peskov said, Novaya Gazeta reported. Credit: Urmas Reinsalu via Storyful