They “silence” by law the criticism of mercenary organizations (essentially Wagner) at his request Yevgeny Prigozhin. The lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, on Sunday approved an amendment providing for sanctions for those found guilty of defaming “volunteer” organizations fighting in Ukraine, expanding the scope of a law that censors criticism of Russia’s armed forces.

The amendment is seen as a move to “protect” fighters working for the private Wagner Group, a mercenary force leading Russia’s campaign in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

The bill will now have to be approved by the upper house of parliament before being sent to the President Vladimir Putin for final approval.

Wagner’s founder welcomed the proposals — an expansion of wartime censorship measures taken by Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

Prigozhin in January asked parliament to ban negative media coverage of his men by amending the criminal code, an idea quickly supported by Duma Speaker Vychislav Volodin.

Under the laws now in place in Russia, “defaming” the military is punishable by up to five years in prison, while “knowingly spreading false information” can result in 15 years imprisonment.

Russian prosecutors have already opened up more than 5,800 cases against people for defaming the armed forces, rights group OVD-Info reports, while authorities have also used anti-disinformation laws to hand down long prison terms to long-time critics of the Kremlin.

The view that Prigozhin’s men are “expendable” so that he himself can be blamed for the unfavorable developments at the front and his presidential ambitions derailed, expresses in the meantime the Institute for the Study of War (ISW)on the occasion of a scathing text against Prigozhin by a member of the Russian establishment, the Russian political scientist, Alexei Mukin.

Commenting on statements by Prigozhin, who sarcastically said he plans to run for the office of president of Ukraine in 2024, Mukhin said on his Telegram channel that Russian public opinion began to interpret Prigozhin’s statement as an announcement that he would run , not of course for Ukrainian, but actually for the Russian presidential electionwhich are also scheduled for 2024.