Wagner Group boss shutters media empire

Patriot Media — the media company owned by Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin — will shutter after the collapse of his uprising in Russia last weekend.

“I am announcing our decision to close down and to leave the country’s information space,” Yevgeny Zubarev, director of Patriot’s news site Ria Fan, said in a Saturday video posted to the outlet’s social media, Reuters reported. He didn’t give a reason for the closure.

Russia on Friday blocked access to five outlets controlled by Patriot: Ria Fan, Politics Today, Economy Today, Neva News and People’s News online. Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) was not immediately available for comment.

Patriot Media included the Internet Research Agency, the so-called troll farm linked to attempts by Moscow to interfere in U.S. elections. Prigozhin has been accused for years of meddling in foreign politics, including American elections, and launching disinformation campaigns around the world.

The government hasn’t outlawed the company altogether, though Russian President Vladimir Putin said Prigozhin’s catering firm would be investigated over his $2 billion annual salary.

The Prigozhin-controlled newspaper Nevskiye Novosti in St. Petersburg also announced it was discontinuing publication, Radio Free Europe reported.